Government comes under fire over EU directives

The Government is under Opposition attack over fines the State faces over its failure to bring Ireland into line with a number of EU Directives.

The criticism, from Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent and Labour Party TD Mr Eamonn Gilmore, comes after the European Commission threatened to bring Ireland to the European Court of Justice for its continuing breach of the Groundwater Directive.

Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has been singled out for particular criticism after the Commission's announcement brought the number of cases against his Department to eight.

Legal action against the State is currently pending on a number of other cases including the Dangerous Substances Directive, the Nitrates Directive and a "range of water issues," according to Mr Gilmore.

"This country has such a poor record in regard to the implementation of EU directives generally that the Taoiseach has recently had to take the virtually unprecedented step of writing to each Minister urging them to ensure urgent implementation of all outstanding directives," he said.

"Minister Cullen must get his act together and ensure full implementation of all outstanding EU directives," added Mr Gilmore.

Mr Sargent cited three written warnings already received by the Government on issues such as the Wild Bird Directives and the Habitats Directive as further proof that "Irish legislation lacks adequate provisions to deal with such environmental pressures."

The Taoiseach is so concerned about the issue that he wrote to the heads of departments on April 10th last, underlining "the importance of ensuring that all European Union measures are transposed in a timely manner, in particular, that we are fully up to date in transposition by the time of our presidency in 2004."

Minister for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, was then asked by the Taoiseach to personally monitor each department's progress and report back to the Cabinet committee on European affairs.

Ireland is currently the third-worst performer of the EU's 15 member-states on transposing EU directives.

Mr Roche recently said departments needed to "pull their socks up" and that he had "not been much pleased with what he had found" to date.