Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 22 Jan 1997

Vol. 473 No. 4

Written Answers. - IAEA Disbandment.

Dermot Ahern

Question:

585 Mr. D. Ahern asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications if the Government will support the call by a person (details supplied) that the International Atomic Energy Agency be disbanded and replaced; if so, the action, if any, the Government will take in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1326/97]

Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications (Mr. Dukes)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an autonomous intergovernmental organisation established in 1957 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is the world's central intergovernmental agency for co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It now has 124 member states, the overwhelming majority of which are non-nuclear states like Ireland. Ireland became a member of the IAEA in 1970.

Membership does not in any way restrict Ireland's opposition to the expansion of nuclear energy, even for peaceful means. Indeed, our membership ensures that we have a direct say in seeking to ensure that the highest standards of nuclear safety and radiological protection apply in the nuclear industry and to influence the agency on other matters such as non-proliferation, safeguards and nuclear damage liability.

In the recent past, our active participation with other like-minded countries has yielded favourable results such as the recently adopted Convention on Nuclear Safety. We are now actively involved in the preparation of a global Convention on Nuclear Waste Management and for improvements in the Vienna convention on nuclear damage liability and compensation.

Under the provisions of the non-proliferation treaty, the IAEA is specifically accorded the responsibility for monitoring and verifying that nuclear states comply with the undertaking to use nuclear energy solely for non-military purposes. The agency therefore functions as the principal guardian of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Participation in the IAEA's information network is also of crucial importance in providing the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) with early warning of a nuclear accident abroad.

The Government does not consider it prudent, therefore, to seek the dissolution of the IAEA.