Environment complaints about Ireland revealed

The European Commission is investigating over 100 complaints against Ireland's environmental record. This is more than any other country in the European Union on a per capita basis. Details of these complaints were secured by an alliance of environmental groups under the Freedom of Information Act.

Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna, An Taisce and Friends of the Earth made the disclosures ahead of the arrival later tonight of the European Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom.

The alliance said that the European Commission blames Ireland's waste management crisis on a failure by the Government to invest in facilities. They focused in particular on the Government's lack of strategy to prevent waste at source, re-use and recycle.

In relation to waste, the European Commission is said to consider the complaints on "control of unauthorised private and local authority waste storage and disposal operations" as among its most important and serious problems.

It is claimed that Ireland is relying on a network of landfills which are inappropriately located, such as Tramore in County Waterford, or are inadequately engineered to prevent air, soil and water pollution.

Through documents secured under the Freedom of Information Act, Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna said that it has been revealed how Ireland has "stalled enforcement of EU waste law and continues to downplay its huge waste crisis and displays an arrogant and irresponsible laissez-faire attitude".

The Commission has serious concerns about the method of peat extraction and believes more also needs to be done to protect sensitive habitats from forestry schemes.

Ireland is set to go to court this year for failing to comply with the Drinking Water Directive, the Nitrates Directive and the Directive on Disposal of PCBs and PCTs.

There are also a series of citations relating to non-compliance with the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive and the Habitats Directive.

Recent statistics have shown that while Ireland has 1% of the EU population, it accounts for 10% of environmental complaints under investigation by the EU Commission.