Former Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to share intelligence on any terrorist threat to the Sellafield nuclear facility with his Irish counterpart, according to newly released government files.
MI5 had warned Blair there were “no guarantees” about who could access the sensitive material if it was shared with Dublin.
Following the 2004 Madrid train bombing, Bertie Ahern wrote to Blair warning of a “transnational catastrophe” which could engulf his country if international terrorists targeted the site on the Cumbrian coast.
Blair insisted the UK had to protect the confidentiality of it sources and provided assurance that the British ambassador would communicate any threat uncovered.
The correspondence was released as part of the government’s annual transfer of records to the National Archives under the 20-year rule.
Ahern said at the time: “I think it is fair to say that terrorist targets that could result in transnational catastrophes deserve to receive special attention.”
Whilst understanding Blair’s concerns, he said he believed “it should be possible to devise arrangements for the communication of sensitive information in a secure manner”.
‘Lives should be priority’
The Department of Trade and Industry, which had responsibility for the UK’s nuclear facilities at the time, said MI5 was not happy with the proposal.
Shantha Shan, an official in Secretary of State Patricia Hewitt’s private office, told No 10 the security service “must maintain a firm line not to release terrorist-related intelligence of any kind” despite any arrangements to mitigate the risk to sensitive information.
Ahern had to settle for an assurance that the British ambassador would brief his officials if any threat to Sellafield was uncovered, but said “the protection of the lives and health of our citizens should have priority”.
Blair said if the government received intelligence of a real threat to Sellafield, it would seek to share that assessment as fully and as quickly as possible “subject to the constraints placed upon us by the originators of that intelligence”.
The British ambassador Sir Ivor Roberts said the renewed Irish focus on issues like Sellafield was in part down to the success of the Good Friday Agreement, which meant relations with the UK were no longer seen “exclusively through the Northern Ireland prism”.
“Much of this year has been taken up in fighting a vigorous rearguard action against opposition parties and NGOs who have pressurised the Irish government into taking more forward position on Sellafield than they would instinctively have taken themselves,” he reported.
“This has led them to initiate a proliferation of legal cases against us in international courts and to step up the rhetoric.”
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