Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will provide an update on the steps taken to transpose the EU Directive on public participation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37421/10]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will provide an update on the steps taken to ratify the Aarhus convention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37420/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 and 108 together.

Ireland signed the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters on 25 June 1998. Progress towards ratification of the Convention is closely aligned with work at EU level and, in that context, the European Union has adopted two Directives as part of the ratification process for the Convention. These Directives deal with public access to environmental information and public participation in certain environmental decision-making procedures.

The European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 came into effect on 1 May 2007. These Regulations transpose the Directive on public access to environmental information.

Several new pieces of legislation have been necessary to transpose the Public Participation Directive and these have been completed over a number of years. The judgment of the European Court of Justice against Ireland in case C427/07, concerning non-notification of the Public Participation Directive, also necessitated additional legislative amendments, which have now been finalised and signed into law. These include:

· Section 33 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010;

· the European Communities (Public Participation) Regulations 2010;

· the Environmental Protection Agency (Amendment) Regulations 2010;

· the Waste Management (Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 2010; and

· the Aquaculture (Licence Application) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2010.

The provision in the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 addresses the ruling of the ECJ in respect of the requirement that access to justice must not be prohibitively expensive. The four sets of Regulations impose a statutory obligation on the relevant public bodies to ensure that when decisions on consent systems subject to the Public Participation Directive, such as decisions on IPPC licences and certain planning matters, are taken, practical information on how such decisions may be appealed is made available to the public.

These measures have been formally notified to the European Commission. Pending any further communication from the Commission, no additional transposition measures are foreseen as necessary to give effect to the Public Participation Directive at this time.

The effect of the measures undertaken to transpose the two Directives is that Ireland is largely compliant with the provisions of the Convention; although there are some outstanding issues to resolve in the context of the access to justice pillar. Ratification of the Convention is a matter of the highest priority and my Department is working closely with the Office of the Attorney General in order to finalise this process.