Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

At an environmental Council meeting in March 2010 the Minister met the current Environment Commissioner, Mr. Potocnik, and reaffirmed this country's commitment on EU compliance. To throw a few more numbers into the mix - 33 cases were outstanding when the Minister came into office, there are now 23. That is a 50% reduction in the number of cases. Deputy Tuffy will be aware from her legal background that one cannot just wave a magic wand and implement compliance overnight. From meeting with the Minister in the past three years I am aware that we have been pulling out all the stops to achieve compliance. In some cases a lengthy legal process has to be gone through and the Attorney General must have oversight and detailed involvement in all of those cases. Good news is emerging. The amount of cases is reducing. In many cases we must seek co-operation across all branches of Government. It is difficult to get the resources. It is difficult in-house but in other Departments it is difficult to find those resources as well. We are doing our best and there is a good news story on this.

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