Moratoriums must be placed on the importation and production of genetically modified foods in Ireland, the conference was told.
The party's Munster candidate in the European elections, Cllr Paula Desmond, called for clear labelling of all products containing GM ingredients and insisted there should be heavy penalties for breaches.
Ms Desmond told delegates: "We are not Luddites in the Labour Party. We welcome progress but we demand that all experiments at laboratory level remain at laboratory level and not be commercially manufactured without the fullest scrutiny." She was opening a debate on environmental issues, which ranged from the dangers of Sellafield's nuclear reprocessing plant, to waste management, and Ireland's position as "the laughing stock" of the EU on recycling waste.
Cllr Desmond said that in time GM foods might be found to be safe, but until that time "we must not be bullied. We must not take risks with the safety of Irish consumers". On this issue there were "no maps, and no blueprints".
She said GM products were on the shelf "whether we know it or not. It is in tomato puree, breads, biscuits and many convenience foods".
She told the conference Austria had banned GM corn, and France was demanding a two-year moratorium on the importation of GM foodstuffs. "Luxembourg, Denmark and Sweden have all indicated their serious concerns at the indecent haste with which this technology is not only progressing, but also being imposed upon consumers." A Galway local election candidate, Mr Mark O'Riain, said "Ireland is the laughing stock of the European community" in its attitude to recycling waste. The State's European neighbours were horrified that domestic rubbish was not separated into papers, bottles and other refuse but dumped in the one bin. "Door-to-door recycling collections should be pushed," he said. "We have to make this country wake up and recycle." A Co Waterford local election candidate, Mr Fiachra O'Kellegher, criticised the system whereby half the residents of a road in Dungarvan, under the county council, pay £150 for their rubbish collection while across the road, their neighbours under the urban council pay nothing for the same service. He said up to 40 per cent of rubbish could be recycled if a "real attempt" was made to have house-to-house collection of separated waste.
On the dangers of nuclear power, Mr John Ryan (Limerick East) said the Sellafield nuclear plant was the "single biggest threat facing Ireland" and the Labour Party wanted Sellafield closed. If there was a problem at the Cumbrian plant of even one tenth of the scale of Chernobyl, "we could be leaving this country today".