MINISTER FOR the Environment Phil Hogan will discuss Ireland’s bilateral agreement on nuclear safety with Britain’s secretary of state for the environment Chris Huhne.

Mr Hogan said in the Dáil that he expected to have an opportunity to talk to Mr Huhne about the bilateral agreement on early notification of a nuclear accident or incident of “radiological significance” at a meeting this weekend of EU environment ministers.

During a Dáil debate on the Japanese earthquake and the resultant nuclear crisis, Mr Hogan said he expected Britain’s Sellafield facility “would be stress-tested in line with the new arrangements being agreed at EU level”.

He said the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, with support from Met Éireann, local authorities and the Defence Forces, operated a national monitoring network for the detection and measurement of radioactivity and this had been updated recently.

He said they would provide the Dáil with the “fullest possible information so we can be clear the events in Japan, while tragic for the Japanese, do not have consequences for the Irish people”.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore highlighted the World Bank’s estimate of $232 billion for the cost to Japan of the earthquake and said “the recovery and reconstruction effort is likely to be long and difficult”. But the Japanese government has so far received offers of assistance from 128 countries, including Ireland.

Michael Kitt (FF, Galway East) said the magnitude of the earthquake was equivalent in power to 30,000 Hiroshimas and with the nuclear crisis there was “huge concern in Japan and abroad, as there is a long history of cover-ups and controversy surrounding nuclear power in Japan”.

It was reported, he said, that “those living and working near the plant were completely unprepared for such an eventuality. They have not received training on how to avoid radiation or what to do in the event of a nuclear emergency.”