The matters raised by Deputies Kirk and Flanagan are similar. Therefore, the suggestion is that each Deputy would make his five minutes contribution, after which the Minister can reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Birth Defects.
Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
A report in yesterday's Evening Herald of a study carried out by Dr. Patricia Sheehan of children who attended St. Vincent's Secondary School, Dundalk during the 1950s particularly in 1957, showed an abnormally high number of birth defects among the children of the then school girls. This is the second such study undertaken in the Dundalk area by Dr. Sheehan in recent years. Previously she had carried out a study on the position of children born to former school-girls of St. Louis Secondary School, particularly around 1957.
There is a disturbing pattern of similarities between the results of both studies. For example, the St. Louis school study of 157 mothers showed eight babies born with Down's Syndrome; 12 other babies born with other defects; two mothers had stillbirths; one baby died within six weeks of birth and two other children died in childhood.
The study showed that all mothers suffered severe influenza at the same time as a nuclear reactor in Windscale went on fire, sending a cloud of radiation across the Irish Sea.
The St. Vincent's school study, which has not yet been published, of 319 girls who attended the school in the mid-1950s, particularly in 1957, showed that five mothers gave birth to Down's Syndrome babies; 33 other babies had serious handicaps including spina bifida, heart defects and deafness; five mothers had stillbirths; seven babies died within six weeks and six children died in childhood. The report further added that, of 1,086 pregnancies of the 319 girls surveyed, there were 161 miscarriages and 23 premature births. The report appears to point to a link between the abnormally high number of birth defects and the radioactive cloud from the nuclear fire at Windscale, now known as Sellafield, in 1957.
These reports are very disturbing. I call on the Minister for Health to initiate immediately a full-scale, thorough investigation. At a time when British Nuclear Fuels are planning to proceed with the THORP development it is vitally important that we establish beyond doubt the position as outlined in these two reports.
I am grateful to you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to contribute to this short debate here this evening.
The content of the report on links between the Sellafield nuclear energy plant and children born to Irish mothers in the late 1950s is of the utmost concern. More alarming is the fact that this is not the first report to suggest such a link. A report published ten years ago centred around a cluster of over 20 children born with disabilities in the County Louth area. Yesterday's revelation suggests a greater number of children is involved.
The common link appears to be a form of flu suffered by mothers in the wake of a fire at Sellafield in 1957. It is worth nothing the authorities in Britain took action to protect the community by way of banning the consumption of milk for a while after the fire. No public announcement or acknowledgement was made at the time in Britain. However, so far as the Irish Government is concerned I understand we were not even informed of the incident, much less put on alert.
It is understood that levels of radiation increased 20-fold at that time. I also understand that Irish weather records for the time are clear that radioactive material crossed the Irish Sea after the fire by means of a heavy rainfall and easterly winds. I seek the intervention of the Department of Health in an effort to establish proof beyond reasonable doubt of a connection between Sellafield and these deaths and deformed births.
The Minister will be aware of the study underway at the Boyne research institute in Drogheda, researching the incidents of miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects and a higher than average number of complaints of urinary tract infections along the north-east coast for a number of years. The Minister can help by ensuring that his Department provides assistance to further studies in this regard. It must be said that there remains a very high burden of proof and the studies to date remain inconclusive. I urge the Minister to ensure a renewal of effort on the part of this Government on the matter of the current THORP debate.
The Minister for Energy must now be assisted by the Minister for Health in pursuing the British authorities, on behalf of the Irish people. The production of civil plutonium is dangerous and cannot be justified at Sellafield. To date, objections have been received by or on behalf of over 60,000 people, 104 local councils and many non-governmental organisations. The Irish Government must insist on at least a public inquiry into the current proposal. The European Union must be more strenuously lobbied to impress upon the British authorities the dangers inherent in proceeding. Efforts must be redoubled to prevent further expansion of the plant.
In relation to yesterday's report, I ask the Minister for Health to inquire whether such clusters of disabled children, stillbirths and miscarriages could have occurred without due cause or reason. Medical experts have believed for some time that the higher than average numbers could not be put down to mere chance, while the recent reports have shown, alongside those already published, that Sellafield represents a possible factor in these infant deaths and deformities. The Department of Health must now act in tandem with the researchers to bring the evidence a stage further with a view to forging a connection beyond doubt. No effort in this regard must be spared to establish the truth for the benefit of all those involved.
I thank Deputies Kirk and Flanagan for raising this very important and worrying matter for people in Dundalk and in that general area. My colleague, the Minister for Health, has been very concerned to read media reports concerning a further study which highlights unusual clusters of birth defects in children in the Dundalk area and suggests a link with Sellafield. This issue was first raised in 1983 and a report was published in the British Medical Journal on the incident. However, inquiries initiated by my Department at the time concluded that it was not possible to confirm or deny the hypothesis that a causative factor was the nuclear accident at Sellafield in October 1957.
It appears from the media reports referred to that this further study has now been prepared but is as yet unpublished. I wish to assure the Deputies that once the study is made available to the Minister I will ensure that it is given careful consideration.
Deputies are well aware of the Government's position in regard to Sellafield. While it has not been possible to determine from epidemiological studies to date any casual relationship between incidents at Sellafield and unusual clusters of defects in babies, neither has it been possible to discount any such relationship. For this reason it is in my view extremely prudent that we should take all such reports very seriously and continue to carefully examine them.
As one who has been aware of this situation I share a deep concern for parents in Dundalk and in the general Louth region who have suffered throughout the period.