The Taoiseach has told the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis that Sellafield is the "single most serious threat to our environment". Speaking at the opening of the two-day event in the City West Hotel outside Dublin, Bertie Ahern said that the Government was "appalled" at the decision to proceed with the new MOX plant.
He said that the plant poses a significant and totally unacceptable threat to our environment and to our national security. He added that its opening will mean that the Irish Sea is used as a highway for the transport of highly dangerous nuclear fuel to and from nuclear plants around the world.
Mr Ahern claimed the decision had all the hallmarks of a bad news story released in the middle of an international crisis in the hope that most people would be distracted.
He said the issue will not be allowed to rest, and the campaign to close Sellafield will be waged ceaselessly until it is won.
On Aer Lingus, Mr Ahern said the Government would bring the national airline through the current crisis in the very best shape possible. He added that he would not allow the Irish airline industry become a "one horse town" again, as this would be the end of real competition.
Mr Ahern also urged party activists to make their case to every voter personally, checking registers door to door. He said it was old-fashioned hard work, but it was the kind of politics that really works.
