A FLOTILLA of working and pleasure boats demonstrated around an area where 5.4 million tonnes of sludge from the building of the River Lee tunnel is being dumped off Cork Harbour. They claim fish and plant life in the sea is being destroyed and will affect the livelihood of "fishermen and those involved in tourism in the area.
The demonstrators have demanded that dumping stops immediately. They want the Department of the Marine to undertake not to renew the permit which expires at the end of the year and which has already allowed 850,000 tonnes of dredge spoil to be dumped off Power Point.
Mr Derry Chambers, a spokesman for the group which includes the Cork Environmental Alliance, claimed the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Eamon Gilmore, had said no further dumping would take place. A letter of protest was delivered to the Department of the Marine office in Cork yesterday.