A bid by the State to have the liquidator of Irish Ispat (formerly Irish Steel) meet the estimated €30 million costs of making environmentally safe the company's former site at Haulbowline Island, Co Cork, has been dismissed by the High Court.
Ms Justice Carroll yesterday granted an application by the liquidator, Mr Ray Jackson, to be allowed disclaim an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) licence requiring a number of environmental safety conditions to be observed at the company's site at Haulbowline Island, Co Cork.
The cost of rehabilitating the site where hazardous waste and radioactive scrap materials have been identified had been estimated at €30 million by English environmental consultants in a report which was commissioned by the State.
In an affidavit, one of the authors of that report had said that, unless the recomendations of the report were implemented, there was "a serious risk" that environmental pollution would occur in the future. The EPA also attributed some €15.9 million of the rehabilitation costs to the company.
Mr Jackson had argued it would be unfair to the creditors if they were to suffer the burden of the cost of undertaking this work.
It was not his lawful function to apply the realised assets of the company for that purpose, he said.
In related proceedings brought by the State against Irish Ispat and Mr Jackson, the State sought orders under the Waste Management Act 1996 requiring the respondents to discontinue the holding, recovery or disposal of watse on the lands at Haulbowline within a specified time and to carry out certain rehabilitative works within a specified time.
The State also sought orders requiring the putting in place of an effective and ongoing monitoring, examination and inspection system for the site to prevent "future occurrence of environmental pollution".
Both sets of proceedings were heard by Ms Justice Carroll who, in a reserved judgment , granted the liquidator's application and dismissed the State's proceedings. She adjourned her decision on costs to October.