Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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51. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide an update on discussions held with UK counterparts regarding recent reported safety issues at the Sellafield nuclear facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3142/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland engages regularly with the UK Government on issues of nuclear safety, including in relation to the Sellafield site. I raised with issue with the UK Foreign Secretary during our meeting in London on 13 December 2023.

Ireland attaches the greatest importance to ensuring the highest levels of nuclear safety by all users of nuclear energy, and engages actively in the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and under the Convention on Nuclear Safety, with the UK and with EU partners to this end.

Officials from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), engage regularly with UK counterparts and relevant regulators, including under the auspices of the UK-Ireland Contact Group on Radiological Matters, which also encompasses matters relating to the Sellafield site. This group consists of senior officials and representatives from all relevant stakeholders.

I understand that officials from that Department, together with the EPA, most recently visited the Sellafield site in July 2023 to see at first hand the decommissioning operations that are underway at Sellafield. We continue to engage closely with the relevant UK authorities to ensure that the current levels of progress being made on the site on the various projects dealing with legacy related matters are maintained.