On this day 20 years ago, the devastating potential of nuclear power was unleashed by the explosion of just one reactor at Chernobyl. Some 190 tonnes of uranium and graphite were expelled into the atmosphere, contaminating for thousands of years an area around the plant the size of England and Ireland combined. The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radioactivity 90 times greater than the explosion at Hiroshima, and yet only 3% of the radioactivity contained in the plant was released. I acknowledge that the Government has been helpful in supporting the work of the Chernobyl Children's Project and the many other groups trying to alleviate the victims' suffering, which continues across the generations. I also thank Adi Roche and the many volunteers and families involved since the disaster, many of them in my constituency.

The question is whether the Taoiseach will to any practical extent help prevent another such disaster closer to home at Sellafield. It is ominous that after the RTE "Fallout" programme, the Government number, 1890 443322, was playing a recorded announcement or else engaged when people to whom I spoke sought more information. God help us were we to have a disaster. The Taoiseach speaks of having an emergency plan published, but will he circulate it? Now is when people are most likely to read it, given the anniversary we are discussing today. Will the Taoiseach require the emergency services to carry out an exercise, something that the fire service, for example, has mentioned? The Irish Times has reported that the emergency services are ill-equipped to deal with nuclear disaster. One reason is that they have never carried out an exercise to assess how they might cope in the event of a major emergency. I know that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, who was in the House, has not audited local authorities’ emergency plans, and the emergency services are not clear that they have acceptable measures in place.

The Taoiseach speaks of paying attention to television and finding out what the British Government is thinking. Will he make a submission on behalf of the Government to the British regarding their talk of expanding their nuclear programme? Is it not a basic requirement of the Government that it state that we will not stand idly by while the potential for another Chernobyl grows across the water?

Regarding publishing the information, the plans are on the websites of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland. Both are readily available.

How many hits have they received?

The RPII has been very active in promoting its plan through its literature, which I have seen. A public information leaflet on what to do in a nuclear emergency was distributed to all households a few years ago. A new print run of the revised leaflet is to be distributed to public libraries and citizens' information centres. The full emergency plan has been disseminated by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. There is no need to circulate the entire plan among the public since many parts are very detailed and technical, but it is available where necessary.

In passing, I will mention a debate that I heard last night. I have discussed the matter and raised it formally with the British Government on many occasions. We will continue the fight for the safe closure of Sellafield, which poses an unacceptable threat on the grounds of pollution, poor safety and the potentially devastating impact of a serious incident. We have initiated legal proceedings in two separate fora regarding the Sellafield MOX plant, under the OSPAR Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Judge Advocate General issued an opinion regarding the European Court of Justice ruling against us last January, which we continue to dispute, with a full legal team working on it. The national plan has been audited, tested and validated in line with best practice, and we have used very high-ranking experts, details of whom the Minister, Deputy Roche, has provided in recent days.

I agree with Deputy Sargent that none of these issues should be taken lightly. Nowadays there is always a risk of terrorist attacks, including some that one can hardly envisage. For those reasons, we must be careful. We will continue helping, in every way possible, the various organisations and individuals that have assisted Chernobyl, particularly Adi Roche.

I asked four questions and received an answer to one, namely, that the Government will not circulate the plan to every household.

That is quite a good score.

Perhaps one out of four from the Taoiseach is not that bad.

However, I also asked whether the fire service would have an emergency exercise to assess how we might cope. That is what it seeks, but I have not had an answer. There has never been such an exercise. Second, I requested an audit of the local authority plans rather than of the national plan, which is different. The local authority plans have not been audited by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Third, I asked whether the Taoiseach had made a formal submission to the British Government. We know about the cases against Sellafield under UNCLOS and so forth, but the current issue is expansion rather than the retention of existing installations.

Since the Government supported my amendment in 1999 ruling out nuclear power in law, we know what it is against. The question that people need answered is what the Government is for. We are the fifth most oil-dependent country in the world, and that position is getting worse. We are building 300 km of road this year and no rail. What is the Government for when it comes to acting on the potential of renewables and energy savings?

A report has stated that wind farms could transform the Irish Sea from the most radioactive in the world to the green energy powerhouse of Europe. Will the Government act on that or will it continue supporting EURATOM, which promotes nuclear expansion? Will it shrug its shoulders when Forfás presents nuclear power as an option for Ireland and the proposed Schedule 7 in the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Bill leaves open the possibility of building a plant?

Apart from helping the victims and closing nuclear installations, which we hope will happen, the best commemoration would be to follow the example of Sweden which has said that by 2020 it will end its reliance on oil and phase out nuclear power. That is the sort of action that we require from the Government. Will the Taoiseach show us the only real action that can truly commemorate Chernobyl and indicate that we have learnt lessons?

As regards the fire service and emergency plans, the fire service has been involved in many exercises and I have no difficulty with any of those issues which are for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. The Deputy knows there is a renewed debate across Europe about the viability of nuclear energy and he knows our view on it. We do not see it as a solution. Its consequences are dangerous in the short, medium and long term. In the paper on energy reform, which will be published shortly, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources will set out our options on this issue

Will the Government make a submission to the British Government?

Let us be very clear about this. As a result of the cases, actions and meetings at official and ministerial levels and at my level, the British Government is very much aware of our position. The British Government, as a sovereign one, has announced details of a review of energy policy, including nuclear energy, for an updated energy policy which will be published in a few months' time. We are fully engaged in a consultation process on this policy.

The Government has not made a submission.

We robustly represent the concerns of the people on any proposals which have a negative impact on public health. The Deputy may think writing a letter is better than setting out our position. I would say to the Green Party that, thankfully, this side of the House did not have to wait until its formation to take a position on non-proliferation. This side of the House has been doing that since 1959——

The Green Party was the first party to call for the closure of Sellafield.

——which was about 40 years before we ever heard——

Fianna Fáil wanted nuclear power then.