FOR procedural reasons, the Green Party's Trevor Sargent will not be able to raise an issue of some importance during Question Time this week in the Dail. Mr Sargent wanted to ask the Minister for the Enterprise and Employment what the facts were surrounding an accident at the Sandoz plant in Cork Harbour more than a year ago.
Others have an interest in the answer as well. Sandoz, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical manufacturers since its merger with Ceiba Geigy, came to Cork heralding an open door policy for the industry. That was welcome news when the multi million project was announced in 1989. At that time, the Environmental Protection Agency was unheard of and the vociferous conservation lobby that would lead to its establishment - much of it located in the Cork Harbour area - had not yet reached a full head of steam.
When Mr Dermot Gleeson, now the Attorney General, headed the three week oral hearing into the Sandoz plant at Cork County Hall, he placed much emphasis on the company's wish to communicate with the people whose neighbourhood it would be sharing. Such commitments were made against a background in the lower harbour of suspicion towards an industry that, to put it mildly, had not always behaved with the best interests of local people in mind. There were health fears in the Ringaskiddy area, there were frequent pollution incidents, and above all, there was a fear that the local authority - then the agency empowered to enforce the licences - was not doing its job properly.
And then Sandoz arrived. This was the company responsible for the disastrous warehouse fire at Schweizerhalle in Switzerland on November 1st, 1986. In that incident, the ecology of the Rhine was devastated over a 250 kilometre stretch after chemicals were washed by the fire fighters' hoses into the river. It was one of the worst ever environmental catastrophes in Europe.
Mr Gleeson's task, therefore was to reassure the people of Cork, and he called company witness after witness to do just that. Sandoz accepted the responsibility for what happened on the Rhine and vowed to the hearing that new procedures adopted by the company would preclude a recurrence.
Little is known about the accident that occurred in 1295. It did involve three people being out of work for more than three days, which made it a notifiable incident, and under law, it followed that an investigation was carried out by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).
This came to light for the first time when Sandoz filed an application for an extension to the Ringaskiddy plant before last Christmas. In its environmental impact statement, reference was made by the company to an accident, and little else.
But when the Green Party attempted to have a Dail question tabled on the incident this week, the Ceann Comhairle responded in writing to the effect that it was more properly the responsibility of the HSA. The Minister could, have asked the HSA - a statutory body, after all - for details, but he chose not to.
And when the Cork Environmental Alliance (CEA) wrote to the HSA asking it to clarify what happened, it was told the authority did not have to make public the results of its findings. Sandoz said an accident had occurred involving three people, one of whom is seeking compensation from the company. It could give no other details for legal reasons, save to say that the environment had not been affected.
The establishment of the EPA, the promised era of openness that was to follow, the removal of licensing powers from local authorities who possibly had confused job creation opportunities in their areas with their much more important function of policing sensitive industries: all led in only direction - letting the people know.
Accidents happen. But when they do, even when an employee is seeking compensation, nothing precludes a company - certainly not one as powerful as Sandoz - from making a swift and full statement on the broad outlines of the case.
When the corporate lawyers dictate what a company's response should be, and when that approach is matched by an arm of the State - in this case, the HSA - the result is to increase public disquiet and fuel rumour. That, precisely, is what we were hoping to put behind us.
The Greens will try again in the Dail. Next time, the party will ask the Minister to lay the contents of the HSA report on the accident before the House. That ploy may or may not be successful.
This is how Cork's Green Party councillor, Dan Boyle, has reported in a newsletter to his constituents on the matter: "Another incident that will hardly inspire public confidence is the reluctance that is nothing less than stonewalling, from a Cork pharmaceutical company and from the Health and Safety Authority, who are both unwilling to report the circumstances behind an industrial accident that occurred at the company's plant in 1995.
"Despite promises from the pharmaceutical industry and by those State authorities responsible for regulating the industry of openness and honesty with the public, this incident shows that old habits die hard and that openness is more talked about than practised."
Mr Joe O'Flynn, the SIPTU representative in Cork who deals with the pharmaceutical industry, regards Sandoz (soon to be renamed Novartis as a result of a merger) as an excellent company in terms of health and safety.
It is good to know that, and there doesn't seem to be much evidence to deny his assertion. But one employee, according to the union, has been out of work for a lengthy period of time and claims that his health has been affected because of the alleged industrial "incident." There are rumours as to its cause. They are disquieting.
They may be unfounded. Those who could lay them to rest haven't done so.
THE B&I's decision over a decade ago to pull out of Cork was a fundamental blow to the infrastructure of the southwest region. When the company left, for economic reasons, it soon became apparent that tourism, the life blood of counties Cork and Kerry, would suffer enormously.
Prior to its departure, few could have envisaged the port of Cork without a connection to Wales. Each year, the service was the corridor through which tourists entered the State before spreading out to the easily accessible beauty spots of west Cork and Kerry.
When the service was terminated, a gaping hole was left in the economy of the region and there was a real threat that tourism in this part of the Republic would be left behind unless something was done to fill the gap. It fell to the local authorities in Cork, Kerry and Wales, as well as tourism interests on both sides of the Irish Sea, to act.
After a difficult and painful preparation, Swansea/Cork Ferries was born. Now, a decade later, the service is reporting record figures for the season just ended.
Its new vessel, Superferry, has been a significant success, and the growing number of GB plates from Beara to Dingle each summer is proof that the service should never have been discontinued in the first place.
The B&I forecasters got it wrong, as anyone involved in the tourism business in the southwest can verify. This year passenger numbers were up by 10,000 to 192,000, and in the coming season, the company expects to cater for more than 200,000 people.
Using Bord Failte multipliers, it is estimated that the service was worth £38 million to the southwest's economy last year and a further £5 million to Cork Port and businesses in the region. The service has earned £130 million since it was opened, and is generating some 660 tourism related jobs.
Through its "landbridge" arrangements with European companies - including Sea France, Brittany Ferries, Hoverspeed, and Eurolink - the company is making successful inroads into new markets and will carry more than 10,000 continental passengers when the new season opens.
"Effectively, the ship is operating at full capacity. We will maintain Superferry on the route for the coming season but serious consideration will have to be given to replacing it with a larger vessel for the 1998 season," the managing director of the company, Mr Thomas Hunter McGowan, told The Irish Times.
However, there may be storm clouds ahead. Mr Hunter McGowan has warned that the abolition of duty free sales in 1999 could have a serious impact on the company's fortunes. "Duty free sales are extremely important to the sector and it is very hard to see how job losses can be avoided when they are abolished," he added.
In the meantime, Swansea/Cork will continue to "grow" the business, offering self catering and activity holidays throughout Munster as well as short breaks in Cork city and west Cork. Outward from Ireland, offers include country cottage holidays in England and Wales as well as family theme park packages. None of this would have happened if the people of the region had merely accepted their fate when the B&I sailed off forever 10 years ago.
PEOPLE love the southwest in summer. That's when the majority of visitors from outside the area come to call. But in winter, what happens?
What happens is that the people of the remoter parts of the State are left to their own devices, and to struggle with problems that mean nothing to the vast majority of those who drop by when the sun shines.
The Iveragh Peninsula is an example. Many who holiday there might not even know its exact name. Cahirciveen is Co Kerry in the way that Dingle is, or Blennerville.
But in the far flung, rugged fastnesses of the southwest, communities have to strive harder, do more, be more inventive, and look to themselves in a way that most city based folk could never imagine.
When the southwesterlies blow around the Iveragh on a winter's night, and a sudden emergency arises, it's not like calling up the doctor in Dublin 4, or the urban areas of Cork, Limerick or Galway. The roads on the peninsula make their own demands. Anyone who has travelled them will understand. The terrain is beautiful but unforgiving.
A woman about to deliver a baby in Stillorgan will make the journey from home to the hospital delivery room with a much easier mind than her sister in the Iveragh Peninsula. But people in the Iveragh don't complain, they get on with things. And that's why what a local hospital in Cahirciveen has achieved proves that small communities can make a difference.
At present, if the only ambulance available to the peninsula is busy, patients who need treatment must travel by car or taxi to Tralee, a journey that can cost up to £70. The money is not the most important factor, though. At issue is the right of people in a small community to be treated near their homes.
Because of voluntary local effort, that's about to happen. Cahirciveen Community Hospital will be upgraded at a cost of £350,000. A 10 place day hospital will be provided, as will a physiotherapy department, a casualty room and X ray facilities.
Local GPs say the provision of the new facilities will transform the quality of life for the 10,000 people who inhabit the peninsula. Those who care for the elderly ill will be afforded respite - something not available to them up to now - and speedy care will be on hand for accident victims.
Using new technology, the hospital's X ray department will be able to transmit images to Tralee where expert advice will be available immediately. The new era for health care in the Iveragh will begin with the turning of the first sod in May.
JUST before Christmas, the air of gloom and sadness in Tipperary town was palpable. Tambrands, the mainstay employer in the town for more than 20 years, had announced that because of market forces, it was pulling out.
Suddenly, the season of good cheer had taken on a new, grey complexion. Young couples with new homes wondered what they were going to do about their mortgages, and the commercial life of the town, which has a population of 5,000, steeled itself for the inevitable downturn.
It was estimated that Tipperary would be down £60,000 a week as a result of the closure and the loss of 220 jobs. The town was promised that no effort would be spared to find a replacement industry but, faced with the certainty of no longer having work, few Tambrands workers paid heed to those promises.
Last week the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton, delivered as he had promised he would. Announcing the arrival in the town of PALL, a health care company, Mr Bruton said that within five years 250 jobs would be created. PALL would move into the plant occupied by Tambrands and recruitment would begin immediately.
For Tipperary, the news could hardly have been better. "People are smiling again, there's a new air of hope following this announcement," Mr John O'Donoghue of the Educational Building Society said. The EBS is one of the companies which had to cope with the reality of helping people to overcome mortgage difficulties.
"For a while, I was beginning to look at my future in this town," a local businessman, Mr Ken Kingston, said. "Now, the future looks brighter. And while this is great news, I think the lesson to be learned from the Tambrands closure is that we should not put all our eggs into one basket. The effort now must be to secure a second industry as quickly as possible.