Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is very important legislation. I thank the committee and all involved in bringing it to this very crucial Stage. We have heard about five planned new nuclear power plants. Deputy Eamon Ryan is much more adept at talking about this area than I am but there is one significant issue in my region. It concerns overhead pylons and power lines to transmit power from Whitegate in Cork to Wexford. The communities there have huge issues with that. There has been a debate around underground versus overground for the interconnector and the fact that we never looked at the option of taking it from the sea. It might be strange in respect of the amendments but it comes back to nuclear power.

Amendment No. 1 in the name of Deputy Stanley addresses safety implications arising from neighbouring states' nuclear programmes. It is very important. Amendment No. 2 states concerns an annual report to the Oireachtas on the implementation of the national radon control strategy or any successor strategy. It is vital. We do not know what we are doing. We are shooting in the dark as regards the nuclear industry. I certainly am, and I do not believe our regulatory industry is up to speed with what is going on. We all remember Chernobyl and its horrible implications. I wish to talk about a great cailín from Clonmel, Adi Roche, and the work her organisation has done. We welcomed na daoine óga that came to Clonmel. They have been coming to Tipperary and other areas all over the country for nigh on 30 years.

It is vital that we are cognisant of what happened and what can happen. Some of our very near neighbours are proposing to build new nuclear plants. It is vital that we have a recording mechanism and an input under EU regulations, that we are kept abreast of accidents in those plants and that safety standards are kept at an all-time high. It should be a belt-and-braces scenario whereby we are over-safe and over-zealous. I also salute the non-governmental organisations, NGOs, in our country and throughout the world for the work they have done and the information they have provided us with. They have left many State agencies in the hind tit position, in that they brought us up to speed. We ended up learning a lot about the inadequacies in those places due to pressure from them and through the media. It is incumbent on us to get this right. I fully support the amendments because we cannot have enough regulation, monitoring and insistence that these are run properly.

Amendment No. 4 concerns advising the Government, the Minister and other Ministers about the risks to the Irish environment, population, society and economy from ionising radiation and radiation sources in countries with military nuclear programmes or nuclear energy programmes or both, including the risks of accidental or unplanned releases of radioactive materials. The only issue I would have with this amendment is that I would put population before environment. Nobody ever released something deliberately. It is the accidents that are the problem. We have no access to see how well maintained these plants are; obviously, they were built to certain standards but that was fadó, fadó. Standards have changed and the request for standards has changed. Above all, we need to protect our people. The environment is very important but it is second to our people. I can remember clearly being in a certain place and a certain vehicle two mornings after Chernobyl and having to get out three times to use my jumper to wipe black dust off my windscreen over a two-hour period. I could not believe it. I did not know what it was. None of us knew. At that time, it was discovered that the sheep in the Knockmealdown Mountains, which is in the area I represent, were the most radioactive sheep in the country. Their eyes rotted out of their heads.

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