Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

I appreciate that there is a lack of consensus, as the Minister points out. We would not put this question down otherwise. If there were consensus, there would have been movement. Does the Minister agree that he is in a key and timely position as President of the Council of Environment Ministers to pursue a review of the EURATOM Treaty to end an obsolete feature of EU life? Austria, Luxembourg and many other member states would appreciate it. There is a separate organisation to promote one type of energy which most of us in the EU do not want to see continued and certainly not promoted. Does the Minister not think this is an opportunity to harness the majority position and as chair and President of the Council, to pursue a review? The time will not come around again.

I am not asking the Minister to accept there is a lack of consensus. We know that to be the case. I ask that he use the arguments that EURATOM is unaccountable, in receipt of disproportionate amounts of research money which other energy sources cannot draw down and endangering future generations through the legacy of nuclear energy production. Does the Minister not agree that he should make these arguments through the opportunities afforded to him over the next six months?

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