THE Government should "seize the initiative" to ensure that the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria is "thoroughly monitored and regulated by an independent, transnational EU inspectorate with full powers", according to the Progressive Democrats environment spokeswoman.

Ms Mairin Quill was speaking during a debate on the Chemical Weapons Bill which passed all stages in the Dail. It enables the State to implement the Geneva Convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction.

Ms Quill said it was not realistic to expect the Sellafield plant to close down completely. "We do not yet have the technologies to ensure a safe rundown. However, we must use our powers at EU level to minimise the threat from Sellafield by reducing the scale of its operations in the short term, while working, towards its eventual closure.

She said the Government had to make public "all information it has received from the British government on the subject of emissions from Sellafield. It is unacceptable that the Irish Government would withhold such information from its people on this vital issue."

The debate was opened by the Minister of State for the Tanaiste, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, who said the chemical industry in Ireland would be directly affected by the convention and the Bill. "However, far from viewing the Bill as another piece of regulation imposed by the State, the industry welcomes it because of its implications for trade."

Industry representatives were consulted during the drafting of the Bill and there were no objections, Ms Fitzgerald said. "The principal obligation on companies will be to keep records of their use of the chemicals covered by the convention and to allow inspectors to enter their premises to check their compliance."

Chemicals used to manufacture weapons "can also have a legitimate use for industry" so their use "is permitted under the convention so long as that use is for peaceful purposes".

The convention would come in to force at the end of May and Ireland had to make declarations about chemical weapons and chemical weapon production facilities by May 29th, the Minister said. "Declarations are being prepared at present to enable me to say that Ireland neither holds chemical weapons nor does it have chemical weapons production facilities."

The National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health would be the "national authority" to implement the provisions of the convention and monitor the industry in Ireland.

Ms Fitzgerald said "as technology progresses, it has become easier for so called `rogue states' with sufficient resources to buy a chemical sector `off the shelf' and use it to produce chemical weapons".

The convention not only prohibited warfare in chemical weapons, it also set up an organisation with wide ranging powers to enforce the convention at international level. The main commitments in the convention included not just the non use of these weapons, but their elimination over a specified period.