Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 February 2013
189. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will make available the report issued on the threat posed by Sellafield; and if not the reason for same. [5413/13]
View answerIn November 2012, I published a summary of the report prepared by an independent team of international experts, commissioned by Ireland, which assessed the probable risks to Ireland from incidents at the Sellafield nuclear site. The experts quantified the likelihood of incidents occurring at Sellafield resulting in the release of radioactive material, and as stated in the public summary, the team found that such an incident at the Sellafield site would give rise to “no observable health effects in Ireland”.
The team recommended that the full report should not be published because to have such a substantial volume of security-sensitive information in the public domain would serve to increase the risks posed by Sellafield to both the UK and Ireland. For that reason, I do not intend to make the full, 1,000 page, report publicly available. However, the full Report is a valuable input to developing Government policies including National Emergency Planning. This public summary document is available on my Department’s website at www.environ.ie.
