The EU Commission has said it will consider withdrawing legal proceedings against the Irish Government if waste-management directives are quickly complied with.
At a hearing in the European Court of Justice yesterday, the Commission alleged the Government had failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law in relation to environment, hazardous waste and waste-management plans.
In response, the Government asked the European Court of Justice to suspend proceedings against it to give it time to comply with the waste-management directives.
It pointed out that 30 out of 34 local authorities had now produced waste-management plans.
The exceptions were Longford, Louth, Galway county and Cork city.
The State should be fully compliant with the EU directives "within weeks", according to a spokesman for the Department of the Environment. He did not believe the case against Ireland would go any further, once the directives were met. The Commission had criticised the waste-management plans produced by local authorities with the exception of plans prepared for Co Waterford, Dun Laoghaire, Fingal, South Dublin and Dublin city.
It argued that none of the plans contained a specific chapter on the management of packaging and packaging waste and they did not cover hazardous waste.
The Government's legal representative submitted that if the court suspended the procedures for three months, it would give the State time to meet all its obligations under the directives.
If the case continues in the European Court of Justice and the court rules that Ireland has not met its obligations, the Commission could request that the State be fined for the period during which it did not meet its obligations.
The Department of the Environment's spokesman said it was unlikely that the case would go that far.
The passing of the Waste Management Bill last week would give county managers the power to adopt plans if councillors failed to do so, he continued. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency had put its hazardous waste management plan in place last week, thus fulfilling another EU directive.
The Commission first wrote to the Government in November 1996, seeking a time-frame within which local authorities and the EPA would prepare waste-management plans.
Following correspondence between both parties, the Commission lodged a case against the Government with the European Court of Justice in December 1999.
