Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

The Government will be aware of the great need for reforms and for transparency and accountability in public decision making. The implementation of this would have a massive impact in ensuring that relevant public bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency would be obliged to ensure all practical information was available to the public to enable people to participate in environmental decision making. Often, when a development is initiated in cases where a statutory body is responsible there is no such adherence and who can or cannot attend may be a matter shrouded in secrecy. We saw this in 2007 with the M3 fiasco.

The Minister stated his intention to expedite this very soon. When does the Government plan to ratify the convention?

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