Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is a very substantial speech concerning our Government's involvement in Sellafield, about which there is a great degree of public concern. Motions coming before both Houses should reflect this concern. We support this Government motion and wish to support any action the Government may take.

I will approach this subject in a different vein. I wish to put on the record a number of political realities that need to be recognised. New Labour is committed to nuclear energy. It made a complete U-turn. When it was in opposition, it was against nuclear energy. When it entered government, it was for nuclear energy. The White Paper produced three years ago gave a commitment that nuclear energy would represent somewhere between 15% and 20% of Britain's energy component over the next 25 years or so even though New Labour wanted to reduce it.

Unfortunately, there is now a political consensus about a nuclear future in Britain between the Conservative and Labour parties, as seen during the recent general election campaign when the very controversial issues of decommissioning existing plants or locating new plants were shunted to a review. The matter was not even dealt with in the election. This is a blatant reality because, when there is a consensus on this issue between Britain's two big parties, we have a problem. The only people who can change the policy are either of those parties when they are in government. Quite frankly, this is a real issue we must confront.

Another reality is not one I address lightly, namely that of jobs in a very deprived area of north-west England. I visited Cumbria and it is a beautiful part of England. We can speak about peripherality but one could not find a more peripheral regional part of the UK than Cumbria. Trying to get from Manchester Airport to Cumbria takes approximately four hours by car. If we are serious about telling a community that 50,000 jobs directly and indirectly connected to the plant must go, we must also produce a few ideas about how we will re-employ these people.

The British Government scandalously underutilises that beautiful part of Britain, indeed, our Government is possibly guilty of underutilising our regions in terms of providing proper regional development policy. One cannot fly into Cumbria and there are no decent roads into it. There are no tourism opportunities. If we are honest about this debate, we must announce what we propose to do with 50,000 people who need jobs. Dr. Jack Cunningham, the MP for the area, will tell one his view on this particular issue if one asks. If we were to suggest for even a minute that 10,000 jobs would be wiped out in any of our own constituencies, there would be a political price to be paid.

The great crime of the British and French is that none of the technology they have developed since the Second World War has been given to Asia, particularly Japan. Most of the actual business of reprocessing is the Japanese-Asian business that comes half way across the world to France and Britain so that they can do Asia's dirty work for it. None of the technological advances the British, French and other Europeans developed in this field was ever shared with Asia. This is another reality on which we must focus. Reprocessing "dirty" energy by sending it half way around the globe is unsustainable. How can we as Europeans share the technology we have advanced since the Second World War? Due to problems with Japan and the war, there is a significant reluctance to share any of this agreed technology.

As other speakers such as the Minister of State have rightly said, even if we close Sellafield tomorrow, what does one do with nuclear reactors? I am unaware of any complete solution to managing a plant that is decommissioning. I have visited Sellafield as a member of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body and I commend my colleagues on that body for agreeing on a report between British and Irish parliamentarians. That British and Irish MPs, Senators, Lords and Deputies have managed to come to an agreement is significant considering we differ fundamentally on many of these issues.

I met Mr. Norman Askew when I was at Sellafield. I am unsure whether he is the current CEO but he was when I met him two years ago. I was astonished to discover that the International Atomic Energy Agency is on site to discover how much plutonium and uranium is "knocking about the place" in order to keep an eye on this very dangerous material. I asked Mr. Askew why Ireland's experts, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, RPII, cannot be based on site. The Minister of State said the RPII wants access to information but this is not good enough. Ireland should want access to the site, a point on which the British Government should be able to concede. I asked Mr. Askew whether he would have any difficulty with the RPII being based in Sellafield full-time, independently going wherever it wants and making any reports or announcements . He said he had no problem with that prospect whatsoever but that it is a decision for the British Government despite his being in charge of the plant.

The time has come for the British Government to face up to this issue. Whatever it says about Sellafield will not be believed by anyone. Similarly, whatever Mr. Askew and the BNFL say about Sellafield will not be believed by anyone. We have gone beyond the stage of examining the straightforward issue. If we have a competent international body in the RPII, it should be based on site carrying out the activities I mentioned earlier. We should campaign for this, which is a part of an amendment I made to a similar motion two years ago but that I do not see in the Government's motion tonight. We should be able to deliver on this issue. If we are honest about the new relationship between North and South, there should be a new relationship between east and west. This means that Britain must treat our concerns on this matter in a much more serious way than it has to date.

Equally, we must face up to their realities, such as the employment and political issues I mentioned. I am not confident that legal action will change this situation. At the end of the day, it is a political decision. New Labour is committed to a nuclear future, as is the Conservative Party. While this commitment remains, Sellafield will unfortunately remain open. We must do everything we can and one of the ways we can make progress is by demanding that the RPII is based on site with the exact same rights and powers as the International Atomic Energy Agency.