John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

We are absolutely on time as regards that Green Paper. As I told the Deputy before, some of his Labour Party colleagues are on that consultative committee. They asked for a small time extension to go through some of the details and I was happy to facilitate them. I want to be clear on that. I do not concede the Deputy's last point that these matters are in legal jeopardy. He said the European Commission referred Ireland to the European Court of Justice for non-transposition of the directive. However, while Ireland is now the only EU member state that has not ratified the convention, as the Deputy said, I understand that EU infringement proceedings for non-transposition of this directive remain open against a significant number of member states so we are not alone. This suggests that some member states have ratified the convention in circumstances a bit like Ireland's, and have not fully complied.

While there are some outstanding difficulties, I want to move on this as quickly as possible and I have committed myself to doing so. Access to environmental information and participation in the process are absolutely vital. I have been in contact with the Commission about this and it does not see a conflict. If there was a conflict there, the Commission would have alerted me immediately. I want to move as quickly as possible on this matter.

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