Minister rules out nuclear plants

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has said nuclear energy will not be generated in Ireland but the State had no objection to importing such energy.

Mr Rabbitte spoke to parliamentarians from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic this morning in Donegal, where the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly is discussing the topic of energy across borders.

"Under our planning laws at the moment the issue is not one for Ireland, which is not to say that in good old-fashioned Irish tradition that we would have any objection to importing nuclear fused energy.

"We have a habit of accommodating ourselves to legislation that facilitates the use of the neighbouring island for matters that we don't want to deal with here," he said to laughter at the conference.

Mr Rabbitte also the Irish Government wants to see Britain "remain central" to the European Union. He said the developing economic relationship between Ireland and Britain would be challenged if Britain's trading relationship with the EU changed.

He told the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly that continuing membership of the EU was a matter for British politicians and British voters.

"But the issue also concerns our shared future. The Irish Government has made no secret of its view that the EU is stronger with Britain as part of it. We want to see the UK remain – and remain central – to the European Union."

Mr Rabbitte said Ireland had to exploit its indigenous renewable energy sources. Expert advice suggested Ireland had the capability to achieve its national targets for renewable electricity from onshore renewable generation alone, with capacity to spare.

"This means that there is potential for projects of scale onshore that are aimed at export markets. It also means that our offshore wind resource can be developed as an export opportunity."

He said the commercial exploitation of wind resources must be accompanies by a very real commercial return to the people.

Mr Rabbitte said Ireland was hugely wasteful of energy and there was not adequate debate about the topic. He said the media generally found energy too difficult a subject to delve into, but huge developments were taking place.