Vol. 500 No. 6
30 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will insist at the peer review process of the International Atomic Energy Agency's convention on nuclear safety that safety audits should be mandatory in all nuclear plants and particularly in Britain in view of the report on Dounreay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4557/99]
I refer the Deputy to my response to Question No. 38 on 10 December 1998.
The first peer review meeting under the Convention on Nuclear Safety is due to take place in Vienna during the period 12-23 April, 1999. The meeting will consider the country reports produced by each contracting party which demonstrate how they are complying with the obligations of the convention.
The peer review process allows for the submission by a contracting party of written queries on the country reports of other contracting parties. While country reports are not confidential, questions and comments communicated during the review of national reports are. The findings of the peer review process will be published.
The Irish representative will have considerable flexibility to probe the UK delegation on matters of concern and in particular our delegate will have the opportunity to raise matters under the UK's legislative and regulatory framework and assessment and verification of safety. These aspects are dealt with under Articles 7 and 14 of the convention. Although Dounreay itself is not a nuclear power plant and as such is outside the convention's scope, the Deputy can be assured that our representative will be conscious of the Dounreay experience in pursuing these areas during the UK review.
