Irish Steel

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.[9] There were several worker deaths between 1999 and 2001, including that of a lab technician who died in a fire.[9] According to an inquest hearing, the plant's administrative block had no sprinklers, fire escapes or fire alarms, and that the "company's fire engine failed to start because of a flat battery".[9] According to other reports, the plant's safety manager had been refused budget for improved fire-safety training.[17]

Closure

The plant was closed, with limited notice, by Ispat International in 2001.[18] At the time of closure, the company had debts of more than €57m.[17][19] Reports of land and asset sales, prior to closure, led to some accusations of "asset-stripping" by the parent company.[20] 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".[21][22] As of 2002, creditors were still owed over €20m, including over €7m due to former-workers for statutory redundancy and other payments.[23]

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.[7] This dumping site became known as the "East Tip",[24] and was described in later reports as one of Ireland's "worst polluted former industrial sites".[25]

The "East Tip" expanded over several decades to include 650,000 cubic metres of waste, extending eastwards from Haulbowline's naval dockyard.[26][27] The processing waste acted as approximately 22 acre of land reclamation infill,[27][28][29] and the dumped materials reputedly increased Haulbowline island from approximately 60 acres to over 80 acres in size.[30] 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.[31] 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.[32][27] Campaigners, including Erin Brockovich,[33][34] requested government action on the contamination issue.[3][35]

As of 2011, it was reported that the contamination at the site had cost the state "more than €50 million — mostly in legal costs".[36] As of 2014, €52 million had been spent on clearing the site, with "a further €40 million [earmarked] to make the site safe".[37] 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.[38] 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.[39] In 2016, it was reported that the remediation works budget, of €61m, would not be sufficient to complete the full cleanup and redevelopment project.[5]

The cleanup and redevelopment of the former Irish Steel "East Tip" site took more than a decade to complete, between 2011 (when the work necessary to prepare a waste licence application was discussed) and 2021 (when the site was opened as a park).[6] Haulbowline Island Amenity Park was officially opened in January 2021.[40][41]