Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

The Minister did not do so. He is tacitly supporting and funding the nuclear industry. It is time he made a move to withdraw from the EURATOM Treaty. As the treaty is approaching its 50th anniversary, it is an appropriate time for Ireland to withdraw from the treaty or, if we are not withdrawing from it, it is time to make substantial changes. Unlike other treaties, the Government has not proposed changes to these treaties. The Minister should work with his colleagues and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to stop the development and promotion of the nuclear industry. As we approach its 50th anniversary, it is time for the Minister to do something about it.

Nuclear energy is still as wrong as it was 50 years ago. Nuclear energy is not renewable because there is a limited supply of this material. Where does the waste go? We know from Britain that a permanent repository for it has still not been found. If the Minister or I were in business and did not do what we intended to do with our waste, we would be laughed at. However, year after year, the nuclear industry continues to operate in this way.

It is not long since the disaster at Chernobyl, an event the UN described it as the most serious environmental disaster that has occurred in western Europe. Chernobyl could happen again and we need the Minister to try to stop the nuclear industry from replicating left, right and centre. Nuclear reactors are vulnerable to terrorist attacks and I know from my visit to Sellafield that they are as vulnerable now as they were in the past. Without giving away any trade secrets, I am seriously concerned about the vulnerability of the nuclear industry. It is not the answer and I do not hear the Minister saying strongly enough that we do not want it.

I do not believe that the Irish people want nuclear power. If the Minister conducts any kind of an opinion poll, he will discover that the vast majority of the people do not want it. All those years ago at Carnsore Point they said that we should not take the nuclear route.

The nuclear industry affects Ireland. The Minister need only talk to his colleagues at the Radiological Institute of Ireland to discover that, 25 years later, we are still measuring the legacy of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. As Adi Roche and her colleagues in the Chernobyl project can attest, the environmental, social and economic cost will haunt people, not just those in the former Soviet states but elsewhere around the world, forever.

The nuclear industry in the UK has debts of €100 billion. That would buy a great number of windmills. I call on the Minister to make the first move towards withdrawing from the EURATOM Treaty and clearly stating that we want renewables and not the nuclear industry to be the future for energy in Europe.

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