TRIBUTES were paid on both sides of the House to the role played by the Fianna Fail Seanad leader, Mr G.V. Wright, in focusing opposition to the proposed Nirex underground facility at Sellafield. Mr Wright recently promoted an all party motion opposing the controversial scheme.
The House leader, Mr Maurice Manning, complimented Mr Wright, saying that both his and an amended Labour motion had helped to galvanise all party support in the national interest here.
The fact that people of different political persuasions had been willing to voice a common approach was of enormous help to the Ministers, who had responsibility in this area.
Mr Joe Lee (Ind) said he wanted to echo what Mr Wright had said he Nirex executive had sought to conceal the seriousness of the situation as raised by Mr Wright.
At the recent meeting of the British Irish Interparliamentary Body, they had been treated to a justification by the Nirex chief executive. The sanctimonious and self righteousness of that presentation showed just how far these people had a sense of complacency and how far they were trapped in a scientific technological kind of state which refused to accept the concerns of ordinary people.
As Nirex was the "son of Sellafield", and part of the same mindset of the Sellafield people themselves, he believed that what was happening over Nirex simply gave more support to Mr Wright's insistence that they push harder on Sellafield itself.