The Government is shortly to step up its campaign of opposition to the proposed Sellafield MOX plant, the Dβil was told.

The Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob, said the next step, as far as the Government was concerned, was to pursue further legal options.

"We have some time before the MOX plant is fully commissioned but not a lot. So now, in tandem with the legal action already proceeding under OSPAR, final consideration of the EU and UN legal options is complete and a decision on the next action to be taken will be made by the Government in a matter of days.

"We will not be deterred from issuing proceedings on a number of fronts if necessary."

Mr Jacob was replying to a Labour private member's motion calling on the Government to take legal action to prevent the British government and BNFL from proceeding with the plant.

The Labour spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Emmet Stagg, accused the Taoiseach of failing to take the issue seriously.

"He cynically uses the issue each year to whip up the troops at the ardfheis, then carefully files away his indignant words until the next meeting of the Soldiers of Destiny."

Sellafield, he added, was a legacy from a corrupt and disgraced industry. "It is a real and present danger to the Irish environment and the Irish people. Any serious accident or attack on Sellafield would have lethal consequences for this country."

The Fine Gael spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Jim Higgins, said the contempt shown by the British government for its Irish counterpart was bewildering on the one hand and understandable on the other.

"Britain sees Ireland as a soft touch, as a hapless, helpless bystander who will make lots of ritual threats of legal action, but who is totally ineffective when it comes to stopping the British in their tracks." The "excellent relationship" between the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister counted for nothing.