Madam, - The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, and the Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, should stop pretending they are 98 per cent compliant with EU environmental laws. Simply enacting a directive into Irish law is not the same as respecting that legislation, as both well know.
For the record, statistics made available to MEPs last year by the European Commission indicate that in the five years to 2002, Ireland had the second-worst record of the 15 member-states in complying with European environmental laws. The Commission issued 85 legal "first warnings" over environmental breaches by Ireland - more than those against the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg and Denmark combined. Thirty of these infringements concerned illegal dumping, 23 were over failure to protect nature, 14 over faulty environmental impact assessments, 12 over water pollution, and four concerned air pollution.
Perhaps either Minister could explain why there were 30 warnings about illegal dumping against Ireland and yet only 21 such warnings for Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands combined, countries that generate vastly greater amounts of waste than we do? It should be remembered that all of these infringements concerned European legislation that Irish ministers had negotiated and adopted in Brussels and then committed themselves to applying at home. Furthermore, 85 per cent of these infringements originated with complaints about pollution by exasperated Irish citizens to the EU, and only 15 per cent from the Commission's own investigations.
In many cases, the Commission has had to resort to legal action against Ireland because of the Government's failure to fully co-operate with EU investigations into complaints. In April 2003, for example, the Commission issued a first warning over the Government's failure to co-operate with its investigation into oil spills at Poolbeg Peninsula in 2002, under the Dangerous Substances and Habitats Directives.
The Government did not respond to this warning and consequently the Commission issued a second warning last December. This did eventually generate a Government reply, which is currently being examined by the Commission. Similar formal warnings about the Government's lack of co-operation have been issued over recent years in relation to pollution at Tramore and Kilbarry in Waterford, at Lea and Ballymorris in Laois, at Drumnaboden, Muckish and Glenall in Donegal and regarding the application of the Wild Birds Directive in Dublin Bay.
But most astonishing of all is the unauthorised disposal of waste material generated by the construction of the Blackpool bypass, a project which was co-financed by the EU, and which was under the responsibility of a public body - Cork Corporation - which is also a waste management authority.
Information on Ireland's and all member states' compliance with EU environmental laws is available at:
http://www.europarl.eu.int/comparl/envi/implementation/default_en.htm - Yours, etc.
PROINSIAS DE ROSSA MEP, European Parliament, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.