EU official castigates Government over environmental court costs

The penal and uncertain costs associated with bringing environment court cases in Ireland, and targeting of environmental NGOs who raise concerns, has been strongly criticised by a senior EU official.

Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, who oversees governance, enforcement action and compliance on EU environmental legislation, said the European Commission would not ignore continuing issues on public access to justice in Ireland.

In an address to the Environment Ireland conference this week, the directorate-general for environment official also highlighted continuing problems with water quality and failures to protect nature.

On access to justice, he noted: “Ireland continues to be the most expensive member state in which to make an environmental claim before the courts. The case law of the national courts has meandered through different interpretations of the costs rules, and has left many environmental litigants unable to predict with any certainty their costs exposure.”

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Many faced significant costs simply by litigating for clarity on costs, he said. “This needs to be addressed. And we are not saying this for the first time . . . It has important consequences and the commission will act on this.”

Mr Ciobanu-Dordea underlined that, “A particular concern for us is the increasingly aggressive stance being taken against environmental campaigners in Ireland. There is evidence not only of increased use of Slapp [Strategic lawsuit against public participation] suits, but also negative reporting in mainstream media, and even from politicians – like threatening to cut off funding to certain NGOs.”

‘Rule of law’

In that regard, he cited “negative reporting of actions by Friends of the Irish Environment”.

“It was a surprise for us to hear this is happening in Ireland . . . It’s disappointing, and even worrying. The rule of law and its protection, especially when it comes to the environment, is one of the biggest priorities of this commission. We believe radical change of behaviour is necessary, because it is highly unusual for an advanced society like Ireland to witness such conducts.”

On water, he said "about 50 per cent of urban wastewaters are still not collected and treated in compliance with the urban wastewater directive". Leakage rates were one of the highest in Europe, while drinking water in parts of the country was not compliant.

The water framework directive “is still not fully transposed into Irish law” at a time of increased pressure, notably from agricultural sources, he said. “I very much hope competent Irish authorities will act in 2022 more decisively than in the past in this area,” he said.

There were serious challenges in nature and biodiversity, he said. The commission had welcomed that terrestrial designation of special protection areas for birds is finally completed, “but we have noted there is significant work to be done to protect terrestrial birds in practice”.

Many species were in serious decline with risk of extinction of certain breeding types. “Urgent action is needed to address concerns in relation to farmland birds in particular,” Mr Ciobanu-Dordea said.

Marine biodiversity

He also said further work was urgently needed to finalise identification and designation of marine sites to reflect the huge wealth of marine biodiversity Ireland has within its waters. “With less than 2.5 per cent of marine waters protected, this represents one of the poorest records across the Natura 2000 network in Europe,” he pointed out.

The latest Government reports showed only 15 per cent of terrestial habitats were in favourable condition, while over 50 per cent were suffering ongoing decline. He raised peat bog issues; especially in the context of ongoing legal proceedings brought by the commission .

Ireland had yet to fully adopt the environmental impact assessment directive, he said. “Ireland is the only member state that still has not fully transposed this directive, which was thoroughly revised in 2014.”

Despite peat extraction and afforestation being classified as key economic activities, “no EIA has been carried out for any project in these categories to date”. He wondered if this was actually the reason why they were not carried out.

They were the subject of repeated complaints to the commission and cited as negative pressures on biodiversity – confirmed by Ireland’s own article 17 reports on conservation status, Mr Ciobanu-Dordea said.

All these “important and quite challenging” issues had been raised with Irish authorities in a structured dialogue last month.

Asked about the absence of water charges in Ireland given infrastructure issues and ongoing problems with drinking-water quality and poor sewage treatment, he noted the Government had indicated this would be addressed without imposition of charges. But the commission “can’t wait until the end of the world” if there continues to be an inadequate response.