State record on EU directives 'dismal'

The Department of the Environment has failed to comply with seven EU directives, and the Department of Transport has failed to transpose or is only partially transposing 51 directives, according to Fine Gael.

The party's foreign affairs spokesman, Bernard Allen, said the State's record on complying with EU directives was "dismal".

He said "the European face of this Government stands in sharp contrast to its national face".

Ireland had "missed all our Kyoto targets", and was 22nd out of 27 EU countries on wind, wave and biomass energy generation "despite having the best potential energy generation in these sectors".

He said "the European Commission took Ireland to the Court of Justice over the appalling state of waste treatment facilities in the country".

He welcomed moves at European Council level to take action on the environment, "but the record of this Government tells a different story".

Mr Allen was speaking during a debate on last weekend's European Council meeting.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who introduced the debate, said the meeting would be remembered "as a pivotal meeting in the development of the European Union" because ambitious but achievable targets were agreed on energy and climate change.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said since $1 billion (€752 million) in trade currently crossed the Atlantic each day "I foresee a time when we could well have the evolution of a free-trade area between Europe and the US".

Labour's European affairs spokesman Joe Costello expressed disappointment that the EU appeared to have "fudged" its view on the Palestinian unity government and did not recognise it as the legitimate government.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said "people must be conscious of the fact that members of that government remain part of Hamas, and still have as their charter the destruction of Israel".