Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

After "Government" in the last line to add:

"and calls on the British Government to immediately grant access to the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to act as an Irish observer at Sellafield thereby having the same status as the International Atomic Agency at this facility."

It is easy for any Irish politician to call for the closure of Sellafield. I say that because everyone knows it will not happen. It will not happen because if one has read the recent White Paper on energy proposals for Britain, one will come to the conclusion that New Labour is committed to a nuclear future.

The Labour Party has done a complete U-turn on its policy. In opposition it said one thing about a nuclear future but in Government it has done the opposite. I understand it has given a commitment to have 20% of its energy produced by the nuclear sector during the next ten to 15 years. New Labour is committed to a nuclear future, as is the Conservative Party in Britain. I do not believe that we in this Chamber or those in the other Chamber or nationally will change that commitment. That is the political reality with which we are faced. We may not like it, we oppose it, we want it closed but it will remain open until such time as political opinion in Britain changes. That may be in 20 years' time or after a terrible atrocity takes place there but it will remain open. We can cut through much of the huffing and puffing about this issue and get to the heart of the matter during the course of this debate.

I welcome the Fianna Fáil motion. It is useful to review progress in this matter. If Sellafield were to cease processing tomorrow nobody would know what to do with its stockpiles. There is no international view on what should be done. It would take 100 years to decommission fully the stockpiles at that plant and at every other reprocessing plant. Even if the plant is closed tomorrow, Sellafield has to be dealt with on a long-term basis.