Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 12: To ask the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government if he will provide a list of any meetings he has had with his Northern counterpart, Alex Atwood MLA; the purpose of each meeting; and his plans fro future cooperation with him. [30308/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I met Mr. Alex Attwood, MLA, in his capacity as Minister of the Environment in Northern Ireland at a North-South Ministerial Council plenary meeting on 10 June 2011 and at a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, environment sector, in Armagh on 1 July 2011. A further meeting of the council is scheduled for tomorrow, 21 October 2011, and will be attended by Mr. Attwood. I also had the pleasure of launching jointly with him the Irish recycled plastic waste arisings study, which was undertaken under the North-South market development programme when we both addressed the Environment Ireland 2011 conference in Dublin last month.

The North-South Ministerial Council was established under strand two of the Good Friday Agreement to develop consultation, co-operation and action within the island of Ireland on matters of mutual interest. Meeting in its environment sector format, discussions in the council have concentrated to date on waste management, including illegal dumping of waste from the South in Northern Ireland, implementation of the EU water framework directive and joint approaches to environmental research and monitoring. Arising from our positive meeting on 1 July 2011, Mr. Attwood and I are working to broaden this agenda in the areas of co-operation mandated under the Good Friday Agreement and I hope we will make good progress in this regard at an early stage.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad to hear there is active engagement between the Minister and his counterpart north of the Border. The Minister answered my question about waste management in Border areas. My party is concerned about the illegal dumping that has occurred north of the Border. I welcome the initiatives being taken to deal with that issue. Unfortunately, the taxpayer will face the cost of cleaning up the waste.

I ask that we take a joined up North-South approach to the issue climate change. Has the Minister raised the issue of the closure of Sellafield with his Northern counterpart? New proposals have been made in this regard.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I have discussed the issue of Sellafield and we have made substantial progress between Ireland and the UK authorities. We have included the Sellafield projects in the stress tests carried out by the European Union in the aftermath of the recent problems in Fukushima in Japan. The International Atomic Energy Agency is helping Ireland to deal with the risks associated with Sellafield. I am satisfied with the arrangements and the results of the stress tests will be reported to us next year.

Other issues raised at the meetings include water quality and river basin management systems, environmental impacts of agriculture and waste management in a cross-Border context which is a serious problem. The Department will spend €20 million on repatriating waste dumped illegally to the north of the Border. These issues feed into the research programmes we have established to deal with environmental matters in the context of climate change.