Cyprian Brady (Fianna Fail)

I formally second the motion and welcome the Minister to the House tonight to discuss this very important issue. For many years now we have listened to the lip service paid by the UK Government and BNFL to our concerns about the Sellafield plant and the ancillary activities carried out there. Not only our concerns but also those of the Scandinavian countries and the Isle of Man and others have been dismissed and, on some occasions, ignored with contempt. Slick PR campaigns and glossy brochures have been used to disguise what is generally accepted as a clear and present danger to the future health and well-being of the Irish people and to our environment.

When we look at the frightening catalogue of accidents and potential disasters associated with the plant, no amount of prevarication or weasel words can hide the threat that exists, not only to ourselves but also to those UK citizens who live directly beside the plant and to the wider population of northern Europe. After the Windscale fire in 1957 the plant should have been decommissioned. The purely economic arguments that the British have used to justify the continued use of the plant have diminished greatly over time and we are at the stage where there is absolutely no excuse for the way in which the Government there refuses to see the dangers posed by the plant.

There is no justification, economic or environmental, for the continuation of operations at the Sellafield nuclear plant. These operations, which include the storage of high level radioactive liquid waste, the continued operation of the old Magnox reactors and the transportation of nuclear fuels to and from the plant, all pose huge threats to our country's environment and our economy but particularly to our people's health. There is now a long list of incidents and near-misses which when added up are a frightening indictment of how the British Government has, over the years, refused to take on board the expressed concerns, not only of the Irish Government but of many international bodies and in some cases of its own experts.