Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

The Minister's reply on this matter is even more pessimistic than the reply I received from the Taoiseach. Does the Minister accept that EURATOM, which was established in 1957 and is very much pro-nuclear and the expansion of the nuclear industry, lacks democratic control? It was established before the European Parliament and yet it spends money that is not adequately accounted for — some of it in Ireland — on research projects which are not scrutinised. I know from people doing research that they feel their projects are unsupervised. Some projects, for example, have funding of €5 million.

Is it not time, especially during our EU Presidency, to push for a complete review of EURATOM so that the functions for nuclear safety will become part of the EU body of law and EURATOM, as a standalone company which will spend €2 billion over the next four years on nuclear research, is wound down and a sunset clause inserted? Does the Minister not support that approach along with Austria and Luxembourg? Is it not important that we use our opportunity during the Presidency to push for this so that it happens? There are vested interests that will resist it. However, most of the EU is non-nuclear in terms of not having nuclear power. Surely, we should use that majority position to push for the ending of EURATOM and the internalising of safety so that we can have a future that is not pro-nuclear but fair to renewable energy sources?

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