Roche angry over action by EC on environment

The Minister for the Environment has clashed with the European Commission over its decision to take legal action against Ireland for eight breaches of environmental law.

Mr Roche said most of the eight cases would never go to court and he criticised the commission for announcing the cases by press release before the full details of the complaints were given to the Department of theEnvironment.

The EU environment commissioner, Mr Stavos Dimas, said the actions related to failure to transpose environmental directives into law - some of them dating back to 1991 - and failure to implement some directives which had been transposed.

Mr Dimas particularly mentioned the State's proposed programme to combat water pollution from agricultural nitrates, which the commission recently found was inadequate.

He also gave examples of actions the EU was taking against Ireland for situations including:

In relation to the delays in upgrading town sewerage systems, the commission specifically mentioned plants at Bray, Co Wicklow; Shanganagh and Howth, Co Dublin, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Sligo town and Tramore, Co Waterford.

The commission said it had "a duty to ensure that each member-state lives up to its commitments to safeguard the environment and human health".

While Mr Roche said he would have to wait before he saw the detail of the complaints made, he criticised the commission for "announcing it by press release".

He was convinced that many of the actions "would never get to court". Since assuming office, he had organised an exchange of officials between the State and the European Commission "to lead to a better understanding of each other's positions.

"The commission has very little understanding of our planning and judicial systems which are very different to those used in Europe," Mr Roche said.

"I am not saying that they should change everything for Ireland but they should understand the lengthy planning process here and the recourse to the courts which can delay infrastructure.

"It wasn't mentioned by the commission but a sewage plant in Arklow [Co Wicklow] has been delayed 12 years. Some items named like the Shanganagh plant are actually being built as we speak. Most of the complaints are headline-grabbing and will not go any further."