John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The delay in the transposition has been due to the complexities of the directive and its interface with existing national environmental legislation. As the Deputy may know, 15 other member states, including the United Kingdom, are in a similar position to Ireland in not having transposed the ELD. I intend to do so and have spoken to the Commissioner on the issue. I have assured the Commissioner that it is my intention and top priority to ensure EU environmental directives are transposed. That and the question of infringements are most important. The Deputy is correct that I published a report on the habitats directive. It was a warts-and-all report which spelled out in much detail that there is some way to go in the protection of some sensitive species such as the freshwater pearl mussel which is on the brink of extinction. I outlined in detail the steps I am taking to ensure this does not happen.

While the Deputy claims we have been in government for 11 months but have not yet transposed any directives, we have given extra funding, an increase of 42%, to the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks and Wildlife Service so they have the means of protecting our habitats and species.

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