Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1188: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if, pursuant to Parliamentary Question No. 787 of 26 June 2007, he will ensure that the electricity interconnector will not be used to import electricity generated by nuclear power plants. [19713/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The use of nuclear fission for the generation of electricity in Ireland is statutorily prohibited under Section 18(6) of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. Furthermore, the Energy Policy Framework and the Programme for Government make it clear that the Government fully intends to maintain this statutory prohibition on nuclear generation in Ireland.

This prohibition does not include the importation of electricity generated by nuclear energy. Legal advice received by the Department states that such a prohibition would be in breach of Article 28 of the EC Treaty which prohibits quantitative restrictions on imports and all measures having equivalent effect between Member States. I am therefore advised that a prohibition on the importation via interconnection of electricity generated with the use of nuclear energy would be highly unlikely to have a legal justification even if it were technically feasible.

It is not technically possible to guarantee that electricity imported over an interconnector is not generated from nuclear sources as it is not physically possible to prevent the flow of nuclear generated electricity onto the network. Nor is it possible to distinguish the flow of electricity across interconnectors by reference to the original source of supply/generation.