Local public representatives and community leaders have welcomed the start today of an integral part of the clean-up operation at the site of the former Irish Ispat plant in Haulbowline in Cork Harbour.
Belfast-based firm Clearway will send in a team today to start preparatory work for the removal of an estimated 15,000 tonnes of scrap metal at the Irish Ispat plant - formerly Irish Steel - which is expected to take about a year to complete.
Chairman of Ringaskiddy Residents Association Braham Brennan welcomed the news and said the clean-up was something which the people of Ringaskiddy had long wanted to see happen since the plant closed in 2001.
"People welcome the start of the clean-up," Mr Brennan said. "There's a lot of concern among people in Ringaskiddy, particularly among elderly people as to what sort of materials are in the plant and what affect they might be having on health, so it's very welcome."
Former Cork East Labour TD and Cobh county councillor John Mulvihill, who worked in the plant for a number of years in the mid-1970s, said the clean-up operation was warmly also welcomed by the people of Cobh across the harbour.
"It's been an eyesore in the middle of Cork harbour ever since it closed and there's a lot of concern about what may have seeped out of the place because there were never any proper controls in place," Mr Mulvihill said. "The clean-up is long overdue.
He expressed concern that the State was being left with the estimated €30 million clean-up cost after the High Court ruled that the liquidator was not responsible.
However, Mr Mulvihill said he believed that the plant must be rehabilitated.
Clearway managing director Vincent Boyle said the clean-up operation would be gradual and not very dramatic, but he expected that it would result in major improvements. The plant site has been derelict since its closure in June 2001.
A team of up to a dozen people will use hydraulic equipment to cut the steel and other scrap metal into manageable lengths, with some 13,500 tonnes of the recoverable material being exported to steel mills in Spain and Portugal in cargoes in the region of 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes.
"About 10 per cent of the material will be processed locally at our Hammond Lane subsidiary plant in Ringaskiddy," Mr Boyle said.
He added that the value of the material was worth more than the cost of removing it, so that the company ended up paying for the contract.
Meanwhile, consultant environmental engineers White Young Green expect to complete a survey within two months on what chemicals deposits are still to be found on the 20-acre island site and what is required to rehabilitate the area.
The former steelworks was exposed to a wide range of raw materials and waste products associated with steel-making over the past 60 years.
White Young Green will carry out chemical analysis on samples taken from the site to check for contaminants.
Last year, consultants working for Cork County Council removed more than 80,000 tonnes of hazardous materials from the site.
These included more than 300 one-tonne bags of toxic furnace dust and polychlorinated biphnyls (PCBs).
