Sellafield issue back on Anglo-Irish agenda

The Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing plant - which exposed major differences between the London and Dublin governments at a prime ministerial summit - will again be on the agenda at a conference involving British and Irish politicians this week.

The Cumbrian complex, which lies just 70 miles from Dublin and has long been a bone of contention with the Irish government, is on the agenda for a session of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, which begins in Bournemouth tomorrow.

Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair agreed to differ on the issue when it came up for discussion during bi-lateral talks in Dublin last week at the end of a meeting of the British-Irish Council, one of the key bodies to emerge from the 1998 Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland.

Mr Ahern has pledged to continue to fight to force the closure of Sellafield, and halt the scheduled commissioning of the plant’s new mixed-oxide (MOX) facility there.

The Government has stepped up its opposition to the concept by citing fears of a terrorist strike following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and subsequent contamination threats.

The BII, which features 25 members from each of the British parliament and the Dáil, was founded in 1990 to foster better relations between politicians from the two countries.

The highlight of the Bournemouth meeting of the body will be an address by Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid tomorrow, who will also face a question-and-answer session.

The questions also include Sellafield, as well as the contentious Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974.

Dr Reid has a meeting scheduled soon with the judge heading an investigation into the incidents, Mr Justice Henry Barron.

:: For two of the Irish team, the trip to Bournemouth will have a personal touch of nostalgia.

Daithi O Ceallaigh and Austin Currie both worked as bus conductors in the Dorset resort town as students in the 1960s.

Mr O'Ceallaigh is now Ireland’s ambassador in Britain. Mr Currie, a former member of the Northern Ireland executive of the 1970s, and later a government minister in Dublin, is a senior member of Ireland’s Fine Gael parliamentary opposition party.