Dáil Sketch: Anniversaries make sombre stories and none more so than the 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, writes Marie O'Halloran
It marked a solemn start to the Dáil when Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny spoke of the fireball that exploded in a reactor "affecting not only ecosystems, human genes and the entire northern hemisphere but also the collective psyche of the developed western world".
Quickly moving to the local angle, he said "we face a clear and present danger in Sellafield". Radiation, "like terrorism, does not observe any borders, so this country is in a doubly difficult position".
Sellafield is "inescapably close" and "Britain has been declared a preferred target for international terrorism by such as al-Qaeda on a number of occasions".
From the local angle he moved speedily to criticism and called into question "this country's preparedness for dealing with a possible incident".
There was a national emergency plan but he hoped it would never be tested. There were a lot of committees involved but "when everybody is in charge, nobody is in charge", said Enda.
The Taoiseach pointed out that "our national plan has been audited, tested and validated", and was designed to respond to a major disaster in a nuclear installation in Britain or elsewhere. Later, when Trevor Sargent again raised the Sellafield issue, he called for the Government to make a submission to the British about their planned nuclear expansion.
Other Greens rowed in when Bertie said he had discussed the matter and raised it formally many times with the British.
Eamon Ryan asked: "Will you make a submission?" The Government has not made a submission, said Trevor. Put it in writing, chipped in another Green, Paul Gogarty. Fianna Fáil's Johnny Brady showed he had been listening carefully to Enda Kenny when he threw back at the Greens, "you're all in charge, so nobody's in charge".
Pat Rabbitte raised the health of former State pathologist John Harbison for the second day, in the row over the decision not to retry Dermot Laide for the manslaughter of Brian Murphy outside Club Anabel. He took issue with a statement he believed was released on behalf of the Government to the effect that there would be no other cases affected in relation to Dr Harbison's health.
When the Taoiseach insisted that no statement was issued on his behalf but by the Department of Justice, Pat claimed Bertie was "abandoning" Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
"What about collective responsibility?" piped up Labour's Ruairí Quinn.
"It's not as centralised a system as the deputy's," retorted Brian Cowen.
"You're leaving McDowell on his own," said Labour's Willie Penrose to Mr Cowen, a Laois-Offaly TD.
"I hope you stand as firmly behind Deputy Parlon as you stand behind Deputy McDowell. He's on watery ground," said Mr Penrose mischievously, of the intense constituency rivalry between the Minister and his Government colleague, Tom Parlon.