Irish Steel

Irish Steel was originally formed as a privately owned firm in 1939, and commenced operations from a steel plant on Haulbowline island, near Cobh in Cork Harbour. This company went into receivership in the 1940s, In 1960, the state's involvement was expanded by the Irish Steel Holdings Limited Act 1960, in what Jack Lynch (by then Minister for Industry and Commerce) described as addressing a "gap which would otherwise exist in [Ireland's] industrial capacity". At its peak, in 1971, the company employed approximately 1,200 people and had increased production to run 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. In 1972, Edward A. Coleman (the general manager of Irish Steel and a member of a delegation from the Confederation of Irish Industry travelling for discussions with EEC officials in Brussels), was among those killed in the Staines air disaster. from the 1991 Rugby World Cup finals) highlighting the company's association with Haulbowline A fall in steel prices in Europe during the 1980s led to layoffs at Irish Steel, and the work-force was progressively reduced from 650. Under the terms of the sale agreement, the Haulbowline plant was operated under the condition that "£30 million would be invested in the plant and its 330 jobs would be secured" for at least five years. ==Controversy==

Safety According to a 2005 article in The Irish Times, "Irish Ispat's tenure at Haulbowline was marked by controversy, with the firm failing to invest" as expected under the negotiated takeover agreement. Closure The plant was closed, with limited notice, by Ispat International in 2001. At the time of closure, the company had debts of more than €57m. Reports of land and asset sales, prior to closure, led to some accusations of "asset-stripping" by the parent company. One such asset disposal, in the months prior to closure, involved the sale of a 30-acre site (for an undisclosed sum) to build a hazardous waste incinerator to the "fury of local residents". As of 2002, creditors were still owed over €20m, including over €7m due to former-workers for statutory redundancy and other payments. Environmental impact From at least the 1960s, waste materials (including toxic chemicals and steel slag) used in the steel production process were dumped by Irish Steel on the eastern part of Haulbowline island. and was described in later reports as one of Ireland's "worst polluted former industrial sites". The "East Tip" expanded over several decades to include 650,000 cubic metres of waste, extending eastwards from Haulbowline's naval dockyard. The processing waste acted as approximately of land reclamation infill, and the dumped materials reputedly increased Haulbowline island from approximately to over in size. According to the terms of planning permission, received by Irish Steel in 1981, there were no controls placed on the material that could be dumped or on protections required to prevent leachate into the harbour. By the time of the plant's closure in 2001, radioactive and Chromium 6 contamination was found to have remained in the island's soil. requested government action on the contamination issue. As of 2011, it was reported that the contamination at the site had cost the state "more than €50 million — mostly in legal costs". As of 2014, €52 million had been spent on clearing the site, with "a further €40 million [earmarked] to make the site safe". While the Environmental Protection Agency had attributed €15.9m of the projected site cleanup costs to Irish Ispat (formerly Irish Steel), the High Court dismissed a claim by the state to have the company's liquidator cover the cost of making the site environmentally safe. The Irish government was later threatened with legal action by the European Commission, for a failure to meet its obligations under the Waste Framework Directive. In 2016, it was reported that the remediation works budget, of €61m, would not be sufficient to complete the full cleanup and redevelopment project. ==References==