The European Commission has issued a new warning to the Government about making decisions on developments before environmental impact assessments are completed.
The warning comes after a breach of regulations in procedures for the Kildare bypass. The Minister for the Environment decided in 1996 that the project was to go ahead but had not carried out any major studies of its effect on the nearby Pollardstown Fen, a protected natural area and a nationally important groundwater source.
As a result of the studies it was decided to fit a plastic lining to prevent the fen draining.
A spokesman for the commission said the warning was issued so that the Government would not repeat the breach. He said it was done particularly in light of the road project. The Kildare bypass, however, would not be stopped as a result of the warning and it was unlikely the warning would go further, the spokesman added.
Funding would also not be affected by the warning because most of the EU money for the project had already been used or had been allocated to other projects within the State, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said.
Mr Tony Lowes of An Taisce said he hoped the warning would cause the Minister for the Environment to reconsider the 3km section of proposed road cutting into the water-table. Mr Lowes said the Pollardstown Fen would be affected if this went ahead.
He said that before the environmental impact assessment, Duchas had recommended the project should not go ahead. "As the developer was the Department of the Environment's National Roads Authority, the Minister for the Environment in fact acted as judge and jury of his own proposal."
Environmental groups are to complain to the European Commission and the United Nations because the Government has not consulted them on a national plan to protect species and habitats.
A representative of the United Nations Environment Programme has been asked to travel to the Republic and engage in a consultation process between the groups and the Government.
An Taisce, the Irish Wildlife Trust, The Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Coastwatch Ireland, Birdwatch Ireland and Voice said yesterday that in the five years since the Government ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, no consultation had taken place on the plans the Government was required to submit.
The Minister for Arts, Ms de Valera, said in the Dail on Tuesday "issues to be dealt with in the plan have been the subject of an extended formal public consultation process, to which many organisations and individuals responded".
Ms Lorraine Dufficey of the Irish Wildlife Trust said groups were invited in 1997 to submit proposals to the plan but there was no consultation process.
Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna said the convention recommended that member-states consult relevant parties on the plans. "The situation here is unprecedented across Europe," she added.
The groups said they had been consulted during the National Biodiversity Plan for Northern Ireland but not the Republic.
Ms Shirley Clerkin of An Taisce said because of the lack of involvement of interested parties it meant the plan to protect species would be inadequate and would not be taken up by the public.