Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This new subsection of the Radiological Protection Act 1991, section 30(4E), does not provide the Minister with powers to veto licences. This section is intended to incorporate the terms of Article 2A.4.(a) of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Facilities into Irish law. This article allows states to exempt certain nuclear materials from the protection of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Facilities if they believe the danger from such material is of such low risk due to its radioactivity and-or quantity that is not deemed hazardous to people, property or the environment. An example might be very rare crystal glass manufacturing using uranium rather than lead.

Section 30(4E) allows the Minister to make regulations, if so desired, to specify such materials as not requiring the full protection of the convention, after consultation with the RPII-EPA. On Committee Stage, the Deputy expressed a concern that all necessary elements of the amendments to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Facilities be fully incorporated into Irish law. This is exactly the purpose of the proposed new section 30(4E) of the 1991 Act as this article needs to be incorporated into Irish law.

The Office of the Attorney General provided comprehensive advice and direction as to what elements of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Facilities needed to be incorporated directly into Irish legislation and what elements did not.

The effect of the amendment, if accepted, would be that Ireland failed to have incorporated the principles and polices of Article 2A.4.(a) of the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Facilities and would not, according to our legal advice, be able to deposit an instrument of ratification with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Furthermore, in deleting paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection 30(4E), the remaining two paragraphs would become meaningless as they are deprived of all context. Accordingly, I cannot accept this amendment.

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