Vol. 436 No. 1
163 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the locations of the installations at which the 27 incidents of a radiological nature reported by the UK authorities since the year 1989 to date occurred; and the scale of the incidents involved.
The Minister is notified of incidents of a radiological nature as soon as the UK authorities themselves are informed by nuclear operators. The exact locations and other specific details of the incidents are supplied by the UK authorities on a confidential basis under informal procedures agreed at meetings of the Ireland/UK contact group on nuclear safety matters and consequently I am not at liberty to disclose such specifics. However, the health and safety executive in the UK publish a general statement about such incidents on a regular basis.
Although the occurrence of any incidents of radiological significance in UK nuclear installations is of concern to this country, I have been assured by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland that none of the 27 incidents since 1989, which occurred at various installations in the UK, resulted in increased levels of radioactivity in Ireland and hence posed no danger to the Irish public.
