Dr. Fred Logue:

-----where local organisations can be prescribed and not have An Taisce shouldering the burden for the entire country. That is the intent of the Aarhus Convention.

I will come in on the data as well. We already have legislation that requires that on the SEA directive. A really important part of the SEA directive is monitoring the significant effects on the environment of the implementation of a plan or programme. Again, this is an area that is not really being implemented correctly. If the SEA directive was being implemented, the RIAI would not be asking for improvements because they would already be happening. It goes beyond data.

Monitoring obviously relies on data but it also requires analysis and a kind of feedback as the plan is implemented. Now that we have ten-year plans, maybe there will be more time to look at how they are being implemented. We look at the environmental monitoring and see where it is going red on the dashboard, which is when it is supposed to trigger feedback to do something in order to mitigate that harm. It is a kind of a macro point, but we do not know the regulations. All these assessments are being implemented through the regulations, not by means of the primary legislation. Some of it is more or less in the primary legislation. Until we see the regulations, we will not actually know how these important European directives are being fully implemented. It is very difficult to actually see whether there is proper provision for monitoring in the proposed legislation.