I understand from inquiries made by my Department with the French authorities that no instruction of the kind referred to in the Deputy's question was issued by the French Government to COGEMA. However, I understand that the French authorities are in the course of organising a public inquiry dealing with the COGEMA reprocessing activities at La Hague. I gather that this inquiry is to be carried out before the end of this year and is aimed at providing an opportunity for discussion of the impact of radioactive discharges from La Hague.
At last year's ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Commission, the contracting parties to the OSPAR Convention adopted a strategy on the marine discharge of radioactive substances. The strategy has as its objective the virtual elimination of radioactive discharges to the maritime area of the north-east Atlantic by the year 2020.
The strategy requires the contracting parties to the convention, which include France and the UK, to work towards achieving substantial reductions or elimination of radioactive discharges by the year 2000. To this end, it was decided at a meeting of the OSPAR radioactive substance group last January that each contracting party would submit a national report setting out how they intend to implement the strategy and their timetable for implementation. These national reports will form the basis for the preparation of an overall report to be considered ultimately at the meeting of the OSPAR Commission in June 2000. Ireland will be directly involved in this process and will be doing everything possible to ensure that the objectives of the OSPAR strategy are fully achieved within the timeframe laid down.
