The Mox Plant Case (Ireland v. United Kingdom), ITLOS Case No. 10, Public Sitting Verbatim Records, PM (November 20, 2001)
CLERK OF THE TRIBUNAL: All rise, veuillez-vous lever.
THE PRESIDENT: I give the floor to the Agent of Ireland.
Mr O’HAGAN: Mr President, Members of the Tribunal, in closing Ireland is going to ask three Counsel to address the Tribunal. Firstly, we are going to hear from Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC. Mr Fitzsimons will be followed by Mr Phillipe Sands and Mr Sands will be followed by Mr Lowe. At the conclusion I will be addressing the Tribunal on the reliefs which will be sought by Ireland.
MR FITZSIMONS: Mr President, Members of the Tribunal. In view of the time constraints I am going to deal with the factual issues; firstly, the RPII issue. Both Lord Goldsmith and Mr Plender have referred to the RPII Annual Report of 1999 at page 12 and have sought to use it as a stick with which to beat Ireland, but in reading each sentence in this report they failed to read out the next portion which states that “the Institute strongly takes the view that there is no justification for the continuing contamination of the Irish marine environment by discharges from Sellafield. It is not correct, as we say the United Kingdom Counsel, did to imply the RPII findings somehow or another approved discharges from Sellafield.
Moving on the STOA Report prepared for the European Parliament, the data contained in the summary of the report remains intact as evidence before this Tribunal. As I have already stated, the United Kingdom has chosen not to challenge this scientific data contained in the report. The data fully supports Ireland’s contention that the commencement of the MOX plant with the resultant increased activity at THORP will give rise to a cumulative, irreversible and long-term pollution of the Irish Sea.