Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Durkan for his contribution and congratulate him on his effective use of the time available. I agree with him that if the answer to the question was nuclear, it must be a very foolish question. I am reminded of a placard held up by a young schoolgirl in Navan during the course of an election campaign a number of years ago which read, "If the answer was Fine Gael, it must have been a very foolish question." I agree with the Deputy that nuclear power is not an option. As Deputy Stagg said in his fine contribution, the reality is that there has been a complete distortion in this debate. There is an attempt to write out the major issues of health and safety issues, not just in this generation but going forward for several generations.

I recently made the point, although I was obviously not listened to by Deputy Cuffe, following a meeting with the British Secretary of State, that we regard ourselves as stakeholders. If a fraction of the money which must now be wasted cleaning up the mess that obtains in this industry had been invested in research in clean burn coal technologies, Britain would have the secure energy it is seeking. It is not our responsibility to advise Britain with regard to its energy policy. Later this year we will see a close to zero emission coal-electricity generating station operating in the United States, the research for which cost less than $1 billion. When one compares that with the clean-up cost of £100 million, to which a further £9 million was added last week, one sees the perversity of this proposition.

A number of Deputies referred to the Forfás report that was published yesterday. It suggests that Ireland needs to develop a national strategy to prepare for the challenge of peak oil. Few of us with disagree with that. The report urges the adoption of proactive measures, including the possibility of developing nuclear energy. That is where we would depart from the Forfás report. The answer to Deputy Morgan's question is "no". Under the terms of section 18(6) of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, the use of nuclear energy for the generation of electricity in Ireland is specifically, statutorily forbidden. We do not need to continually forbid it: as the Minister for Foreign Affairs pointed out, it is sufficient to forbid things once. Under the terms of the energy policy review currently under way, the nuclear option is specifically excluded. The option is, therefore, doubly excluded.

With regard to the specific question raised by Deputy Morgan, let me put his mind at ease because I would not like him to have a sleepless night. Neither I nor any other member of the Government would agree with the proposition put forward in the Forfás report. The Deputy referred specifically to a mythological event at the recent European Council meeting and Deputy Cuffe challenged me in that regard. Let me put the record straight in both cases. The Taoiseach has already made the position clear that, of course, we would support any action from a member state. Deputy Cuffe should know, because it was well reported at the time, that, as a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe, I strongly supported, on behalf of Ireland, the Austrian proposition. That is a matter of record. I not only did that openly in the course of the convention, I also did it as the leader of the Friends of the Community Method Group.

Deputy O'Dowd raised two questions, one of which related to an FOI request. As the Deputy is aware, the operation of the Freedom of Information Act is a matter of law, a law in which the party of which the Deputy is a member had some——

See this speech in context