If we don’t even like power lines, what chance is there of building a nuclear reactor in Ireland?

MICHEÁL Martin has said he is “open” to nuclear power in Ireland, although he has questioned the cost.

The taoiseach was responding to questions about a motion at next month’s Fianna Fáil conference supporting nuclear power, intended to start a national debate on the subject.

This is bound to leak some political radiation across the border.

Sinn Féin will latch onto every protest against it, while unionists will suggest a reactor in Northern Ireland to wind up Sinn Féin.

David Adams: I’m a former loyalist who supports a ‘New Ireland’, but why won’t anyone tell me what it will be like?

Technology is also set to transform the debate. The taoiseach is correct about the economics of nuclear power in a small country, but if the push for small modular reactors is a success, their use in Ireland would become more plausible from a financial and practical perspective.

From a political perspective it remains completely implausible.

Merely building a power line across the border has provoked two decades of Nimby outrage, pandered to by almost every party, north and south.

Fianna Fáil demanded the line be halted when it was in opposition and some of its local representatives are still objecting to it to this day.

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Michelle O’Neill attended the Irish government’s Easter Rising commemoration in Dublin on Sunday, in her capacity as First Minister.

TUV leader Jim Allister has demanded to know why the DUP did not stop this being publicised on the Executive’s official X account.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill has attended the annual Easter Rising commemoration event in Dublin.

The ceremony, which was led by President Catherine Connolly, marked the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. pic.twitter.com/0pOw8cFFPM

This was a jibe at the DUP, not at O’Neill, and the DUP wisely........

© The Irish News

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