Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Does the Minister accept that he is having it both ways in his approach to nuclear power? Depending on his audience, he says that he wants to encourage debate on nuclear power or that he totally opposes nuclear power. Will the Minister come down off the fence? There is no point in having a debate on nuclear power if the Minister is clear that it will go nowhere. A nuclear renaissance is clearly occurring globally, but surely it is not feasible to encourage debate, not to participate in it by triggering it, while opposing nuclear power anyway. Why would anybody on any committee in this House spend time and energy on a debate when the Minister is not willing to trigger it because he does not agree with it?

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