111 environmental cases against State

As the EU Environment Commissioner, Ms Margot Wallstrom, arrived in Dublin yesterday, it was revealed that her legal unit in Brussels is dealing with 111 cases against Ireland for breaches of EU environmental directives.

Correspondence dealing with the most serious cases of illegal waste-dumping, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, was released by Ms Patricia McKenna MEP (Green Party, Dublin), who said it made for "deeply shocking reading".

Ms McKenna said evidence of illegal dumping had been brushed aside for years by government. In some cases, it took more than a year to respond to queries from Brussels and, as a result, environmental pollution was not addressed.

With 111 "active" complaints, Ireland is ranked as the fourth-worst offender behind Spain, Germany and Italy for alleged breaches of EU environmental legislation. Of the Irish total, 17 complaints relate to infringements of the waste directive.

These form the basis of court proceedings initiated by the European Commission against Ireland before Christmas, an action given added urgency by the revelations of illegal dumping of waste, including hospital waste, in Co Wicklow.

The Commission considers the complaints relating to waste management as among the most serious it is currently dealing with, according to Ms McKenna, and it had accumulated a "very considerable" body of evidence on the issue.

"When queried last week on this complaint, the Commission said Ireland's failure to invest in waste facilities and in particular its lack of strategy to prevent waste at source, to reuse and recycle has led to the current crisis", she told a press briefing.

The Commission believes that the management of several landfills here "leaves a lot be desired \ encourages illegal dumping".

And because there was now a severe capacity problem, it was very attractive to dispose of waste illegally, it said.

Under the proceedings issued by the Commission, Ireland faces a legal challenge, and if it fails to comply, a court action in the EU Court of Justice. If convicted, the Government could face a daily fine running into thousands of euro, until it complies.

The Commission has already issued a second legal warning over Ireland's failure to implement a directive requiring environmental impact assessment (EIA) of peat-extraction and forestry projects by adopting what the EU court held were arbitrary thresholds.

This year Ireland is before the court in three other areas for its alleged failure to comply with the Drinking Water Directive, the Nitrates Directive and a directive on the disposal of persistent organic compounds, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).

In the nitrates case, the Commission has said that if Ireland were to follow the example of Austria, Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands by designating the entire State as a nitrate sensitive area, it would go a long way towards satisfying the EU.