The privatisation of the British Nuclear Group does not change the British government's responsibility for Sellafield, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche told the Dáil.
The Minister said the British authorities had confirmed to him that responsibility for and ownership of Sellafield would remain with the British government.
He said the Government here would continue to campaign for Sellafield's closure.
During a debate on the nuclear facility, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the House was united in being anti-nuclear. "But this non-nuclear status brings with it an onus to provide alternate secure, reliable and competitive energy supplies". Mr Ahern said that "it's not good enough for us politicians to loudly proclaim anti-nuclear credentials, but then oppose gas pipeline, pylons and inter-connectors".
He stressed that "being anti-nuclear means advancing real non-nuclear alternatives - alternatives which can deliver for Ireland, not at some unspecific future date, but right now".
Fine Gael's environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd questioned whether the Minister for the Environment knew about a shipment of nuclear waste along the Irish Sea and if so why he did not make a public statement about it, as he had done with a previous shipment from Japan.
Emmet Stagg (Lab, Kildare North) described Sellafield as a "colossal nuclear junkyard".
