Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 20 and 21 are important additions to the Bill. We had lengthy discussions about what used to be called a section 5 declaration and will now come under section 10 of this Bill. The amendments will extend the ability of environmental NGOs or bodies that have constitutions setting out to protect the environment and so on, and that is an important addition to make here. Some important decisions in courts have emanated from a section 5 declaration, not least the case brought by Friends of the Irish Environment in respect of the illegal mining of peatland. It is important, therefore, that in this Bill we include those ENGOs, which will now have that right to seek what we will call a section 10 declaration.

We have spoken a lot about Aarhus and people's rights to access justice and environmental information. There probably was a difficulty with section 5 in that the subject person may not have been informed that somebody had sought a section 5 declaration on his or her land, which prevented such a person from making a submission on it. I think we have struck the right balance on this here and addressed imbalances that may have existed with section 5. I welcome that addition and thank the Minister for including it.

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