Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and the Government motion. I commend the Minister on the work he has put into this task. Since assuming office, he has been working step by step through the machinery available in legal international fora to bring about the ultimate objective, the closure of the plant at Sellafield. In the context of that work, I commend the Minister for the pro tem order referred to in the motion. He will be aware that many efforts and long days and nights have been spent over the past five years in an attempt to achieve this.

Some measure of achievement was recorded before the pro tem order was made. It is encouraging and gratifying that an order was made to give Ireland the right to consultation. The Government knows that the British Government is now obliged, under the direction of the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, to consult it in future and exchange information on nuclear safety.

The motion is timely. It is as much about the MOX plant as it is about the Sellafield complex in general. The case made by Ireland at the OSPAR tribunal was for access to certain information about the MOX plant which had been withheld from the public domain by the British Government. The judgment in the case handed down today did not go entirely our way but we are as heartened as the Minister that three of the five main points in the judgment are very much in our favour. It is disappointing that a 2:1 majority rejected Ireland's main argument. However, even in rejecting it, as the Minister rightly said, quite considerable scope is now being given to the Government to examine all the options available, given that there is now a clear acknowledgement that the British Government is accountable. On the basis of the judgment, the Government may seek out, identify and pursue all options available. This considerably diminishes our disappointment that the main argument was not accepted.

We were never naive enough to think that, simply by going to a tribunal in Europe – despite the fact that the Minister had made a good case – we would automatically succeed. There is a huge force to the contrary and, with the Minister, we were aware of that fact. Nevertheless, his achievement must be recorded and, as he rightly said today, he is more determined than ever to exploit the opportunities and options presented. Three of the five main aspects of the judgment provide a clearer road map than that which was in place heretofore and known to the Minister's Department yesterday.

The judgment represents a milestone in Ireland's step by step approach to the objective of having the plant at Sellafield and its operations closed down. In his response to the ruling today the Minister clearly articulated his relentless determination to continue to pursue every legal avenue and available international forum to establish that the operations at Sellafield constitute a clear and present threat to the Irish Sea and the citizens of Ireland. That determination is warmly welcomed.