I propose to take Questions Nos. 8, 41, 51 and 70 together.
I have taken every opportunity to press the Government's position on the closure of Sellafield. At ministerial level, such protests would be made to the UK Secretary of State for Energy, who is responsible for the nuclear industry, and not to the Secretary of State for the Environment. Successive Secretaries of State for Energy have been informed directly of the Government's views. In fact, only last Friday I met with Mr. John Wakeham, the present Secretary of State for Energy and raised with him our serious concerns about nuclear power in general and Sellafield in particular. I can assure the Deputy that the British Government are left in no doubt about Ireland's view on Sellafield.
Within the EC, Irish concerns about nuclear safety have been raised at every opportunity. At the EC Council of Energy Ministers on Monday, following a long discussion on energy and the environment, we succeeded in getting the Council's agreement for the first time to welcome the Commission's view that a discussion on nuclear energy and environmental issues including safety, transport and waste — including waste from the decommissioning process — should be pursued. In the course of the discussion, the Council were informed trenchantly of Ireland's views on nuclear safety and related issues. In particular our continued opposition to reprocessing at the Sellafield plant was reiterated and Ireland asserted that discharges into the environment must cease through closure of the plant.
As regards the Gardner report, it has been examined in my Department, and it indicates a possible link between high levels of radiation to which Sellafield workers can be exposed and leukaemia. It also states that no link between increased leukaemia incidence and environmental radioactivity was found. The Irish public, of course, would be exposed to radioactivity from Sellafield through the environment. I understand that further work based on Professor Gardner's report is now being carried out in the UK, and any additional findings will be scrutinised by my Department.