The European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision that the Republic acted illegally by going to the UN over Sellafield will have a positive impact in the longer term, according to Minister for the Environment Dick Roche.
In what appeared to be a blow to the Republic's five-year campaign to close the reprocessing plant at Sellafield, the court ruled that the State's action risked undermining the autonomy of the EU legal system.
The Republic should have taken its case against the UK to the European court rather than an arbitral panel at the UN. The Government should also have consulted the EU institutions before initiating its legal action in 2001, said the judgment.
In a statement yesterday, the European Commission said the clarifications brought by the court were important for protecting the coherence and autonomy of the Community legal order. In other words, member states may not submit their disputes concerning questions of European court law to international tribunals outside its legal framework, it said.
Mr Roche said the decision meant that the Republic could now go directly to the European court if it felt that nuclear activities in the UK posed a threat to the environment. While the Government had no immediate plans to take further legal action on the issue, the Minister described the court finding as "a significant and novel development in Community law".
Mr Roche maintained that EU and international law at the time obliged the Republic to bring its legal argument in respect of the commissioning of Sellafield's MOX plant before an international tribunal. "This judgment significantly alters that position," he said.
Mr Roche added that the decision provided clarity in that certain international agreements now fell exclusively within the European court's remit insofar as disputes arose under them. The judgment had made it clear that a case could be brought to the European court if the circumstances demanded it.
Fine Gael environment spokesperson Fergus O'Dowd, TD, said the court ruling against the Republic was disappointing but not unexpected.
"Ireland must now redouble its efforts in the fight against the plant. Due to the current and potential health and environmental impacts Sellafield has on our country, I support the use of any means necessary to ensure it is shut down.
"The ECJ's ruling refers to a legal point and the possibility still remains for a court to force Sellafield to close. . . It is manifestly in the national interest that the plant is wound down as soon as possible."
Labour spokesperson on nuclear safety Emmet Stagg said the ruling underlined the contradiction at the heart of the commission's attitude to nuclear safety.
"Once again I am totally bewildered by the commission's attitude towards Sellafield. One moment they are issuing warnings of safety failures at the plant, yet the next they take Ireland to the European court for seeking its closure."
The Green Party has called for the Republic to withdraw from the Euratom Treaty in response to the case.
"In a nutshell, the EU has slapped us on the wrist and told us to work within its institutions. The problem is that we signed up to the Euratom Treaty as part of our European Union obligations and that Treaty supports nuclear power.
"How can we argue against nuclear power through the European Union's institutions when we're providing funding for nuclear research under Euratom with Irish taxpayers' money?" said the party's environment spokesperson, Ciarán Cuffe.