Roche admits defeat over €5m Sellafield challenge

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche has given up hope of using international law to shut down a new reactor at the Sellafield nuclear power plant.

He confirmed the Government has finally accepted its botched €5 million legal challenge against the MOX plant is beyond rescue. In a parliamentary reply on the day before the Dáil broke for its Easter holidays, Mr Roche admitted defeat.

“Following consultations with the attorney general, the case taken by Ireland against Britain under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will not now proceed. The (European) Commission and the UNCLOS Tribunal were informed accordingly,” he said.

His comments come less than a year after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Ireland’s case against the British government to be unlawful.

It criticised the Government for referring the case straight to the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in 2001.

The ECJ said it had ultimate jurisdiction in this area and by going over its head Ireland had flouted international law. At the time the Government reserved the right to channel the case back through the European courts.

The Government maintained its British counterpart had failed to complete a proper environmental impact statement and was neglecting its obligations to protect the Irish sea by building the MOX plant.

Mr Roche said the Government had now officially informed the UN Tribunal and the European Commission it wanted the case dropped.

Notification was sent to both parties on February 16, just one day after Greenpeace won its High Court case in London against British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s nuclear policy on similar grounds.

However, he defended the wisdom of the decision to spend taxpayers’ money bringing a flawed challenge against the Sellafield plant.

“The Government, as in the past, will continue to explore all legal, diplomatic and political options open to it on an ongoing basis in order to ensure the concerns and interests of Irish people are represented and protected,” he said.

Green Party environment spokesman Ciaran Cuffe said the issue could not be put to one side and there was more diplomatic avenues which had still to be exhausted.

“I think for one it would send a very strong message if Minister Roche was to visit Sellafield and see the plant first-hand,” he said.