I am calling on Deputy Reynolds and then I am calling Deputy Skelly for a final question. It may be thought that that will not give an opportunity for an exhaustive investigation of this but there are some matters which are not suitable for completely teasing out at Question Time and this happens to be one of them.

I have only one question.

I was going to ask Deputy Reynolds first and then give the Deputy the last one.

Can the Minister tell me the date on which monitoring and sampling was commenced by the Nuclear Energy Board and would he agree that there is no such thing as a safe level of radiation?

I will be able to reply specifically to the first part of the question in the answer to another question. I have a second or third question on this in the course of the next hour.

We have not had an unsafe level of radiation in the past number of weeks. I am not going to claim to be an expert in this area but experts differ on what are acceptable levels. We have to take the best guidance we can get both from within Europe and worldwide in relation to safety in this area. The nuclear industry by its very nature poses a serious threat particularly in relation to health levels and the lack of information we have had in the past. I am quite confident in stating to this House that we have not had any health hazards that we are aware of in the past number of weeks. We can only say that on the basis of the monitoring that was done throughout the country.

I did not ask that. Is there any safe level of radioactivity?

I assume that if that question was put to the experts, they would vary in their replies.

There are many experts across the world who have replied that there is no acceptable level of radiation.