Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to discuss this Bill, which I welcome. The Bill transfers many of the functions under the other radiological protection Acts to one Minister. It deals with nuclear safety in the State but does not deal with the threat posed by nuclear power plants in close proximity to the State. The most concerning of these is the plant formerly known as Windscale in Northumberland. Today it is called Sellafield in an attempt to bury the bad memories of the 1950s when the reactor there went on fire and emitted radioactive particles into the atmosphere for weeks.

The emission of radioactive material from these plants does not just affect the state in which it happens. As we saw with Chernobyl in the 1980s, we are all at the mercy of the winds once material is leaked into the atmosphere. Sellafield houses the nuclear waste left over from power generation in massive cooling pools located on the Northumberland coast on the Irish Sea. It also accepts nuclear waste from outside Britain. The plant is decaying fast yet it is still accepting waste. Has the Minister raised concerns either with the British Government, the EU or the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, about the poor state of Sellafield and the continued acceptance of waste? There are plans to build the first new nuclear plant in 20 years at Hinkley Point, but there was no consultation with the Irish Government when those plans were being drawn up. In the end An Taisce had to take Britain to court. France and Germany also took cases.

The attitude of the Government towards the danger posed by nuclear plants in Britain appears to be very lax. What will happen when Britain is outside the EU and we cannot rely on the European courts or pressure from our EU neighbours? There are also reports that sites in the North may be used to store some of the nuclear waste that storage sites like Sellafield can no longer hold. Can the Minister give us an update on what he knows in this regard? In addition, can he give an assurance that the Irish Government is determined to keep this island nuclear free?

I also wish to raise the issue of radon gas emissions in residential houses. County Mayo has some of the highest numbers of properties where the presence of radon is above the reference levels. Radon is naturally occurring in the rocks but in large concentrations it can have detrimental effects on health. Information is key. Radon tests, detectors and barriers can make properties safe. Without wishing to scaremonger, it is important that homeowners and people seeking to buy a house have all the available information. I am aware that there are questions on the conveyancing form that is filled out when a house is being sold about the presence of radon and whether any remediation work has been carried out. Are there any plans to formalise this in legislation? Homeowners who bought their properties in the last 15 years do not know if their house has a radon barrier. I understand that from last year, all new houses have this radon barrier. However, what about the almost half a million houses that were constructed during the so-called boom? How do people know if their house has a barrier? Many of the developers who built these houses have disappeared and it is very difficult to find out if there is a barrier without major disruptive work being carried out on the house to find out.

Are there any plans for some type of remediation scheme for this? In the Dáil recently the Minister said that a pilot scheme had commenced in six locations and that €75,000 had been set aside for it. Where are these locations and how is that pilot scheme progressing? If successful, is the Minister hoping to get the necessary funding to continue it? This issue will be with us for a long time into the future, longer than the lifetime of a dwelling, so we need a long-term strategy to get the information and to act on it.