Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is bringing back memories for me because I was one of a number of plaintiffs, shortly after when the Aarhus Convention was enacted here, who were seeking a not prohibitively expensive order from the High Court to take a case. That was very early days in terms of Ireland's compliance with Aarhus.

It is really important that we get this right. It is a very important provision that the State is meeting its requirements in this regard. There has been a review of the administration of civil justice. The report on that identified that there was a high level of legal costs in Ireland comparable with other jurisdictions. I will state that this will be developed in the regulations. As I said, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is leading on that and will engage in a very extensive public consultation to determine the scale of fees and how that operates. That is going to happen within three months. That public consultation process will report back to Government within three months of that process concluding. There is a process to go in terms of determining the scale of fees and how that is to be operated. As I said, however, that process is being led by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, which will draft the regulations in that regard.