I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 76 together.
The Government have been consistent in their policy on Sellafield and have called many times for its closure, both at meetings with the relevant UK authorities and more generally. Nuclear safety matters are primarily the responsibility of the Minister for Energy at national level and, at Community level, come under the Energy Council and the Euratom Treaty rather than the Environment Council.
My colleague, the Minister for Energy, has raised the Sellafield question several times during his Presidency of the Energy Council, most recently at the Council meeting on 21 May. I refer the Deputies to the replies to Questions Nos. 8, 15, 22, 41, 42, 51, 64 and 70 of 24 May in which the Minister for Energy gave a comprehensive account of his efforts in this matter.
For my part, I have raised the issue of Sellafield nuclear safety and emissions generally at international level at every suitable opportunity, including two international conferences which I attended so far during my Presidency. At the Third North Sea Conference in the Hague on 7-8 March, I expressed my strong concern and that of the Government about radioactive waste disposal in the marine environment and called for the closure of the Sellafield plant. In Bergen on 14 May, at the conference on sustainable development, I pointed out the problems of nuclear waste disposal, of the decommissioning of old plant and the appalling consequences of accidents, and stressed that nuclear energy cannot legitimately be advanced as a solution to climate change at least until the problems I outlined have been resolved.