Opposition to Sellafield Continues, says Roche

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Opposition to Sellafield Continues, says Roche

Tuesday, April 10 2007

Mr. Dick Roche, T.D., Minister for the Environmenthas reaffirmed Government opposition to the Sellafield plant, stating that "Using every legal and diplomatic means, the Government will continue its fight for the safe and orderly closure of the facility".

"No Government has worked harder to achieve this objective," Minister Roche stated today. "We took the unprecedented step of taking the matter to international tribunals, one under the OSPAR Convention and one under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea."

"It is a matter of public record now that the European Commission considered that Ireland should not have taken these initiatives and the European Court of Justice supported the Commission's view in their ruling of last May".

"However, this simply means that we have to refocus our opposition to Sellafield by pressing the Commission to act appropriately on the matter and by continuing to voice our concerns. I have made it clear to the Commission and to Commissioner Piebalgs personally that we have these concerns and that we expect to see the Commission actively engaged in the Sellafield issue".

"I have also met with like minded Countries recently in Dublin, where we expressed shared concerns about reprocessing, called for an international peer review of the re-opening of THORP and agreed to meet again later this year".

"In considering whether future legal action may be taken, the Government will be influenced, inter alia, by Commission action and by the legal advice of the Attorney General. There is no softening of our opposition to this facility or to our pursuit of the means to ensure its safe and orderly closure".

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