Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the position regarding steps to transpose the EU Directives on public participation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44417/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Directive 2003/35/EC ('the Public Participation Directive') provides for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment and for access to justice in certain environmental matters. It amends both Directive 85/337/EC on Environmental Impact Assessment and Directive 96/61/EC on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). The Directive impacts on a range of consent systems including planning and strategic infrastructure, foreshore, aquaculture licensing, forestry, waste licensing and arterial drainage.

The system of judicial review gives effect to the access to justice requirements of the Directive. Other forms of redress - such as appeals against decisions of planning authorities to An Bord Pleanála and recourse to the Ombudsman where applicable - also transpose aspects of the Directive.

A wide range of legislation, affecting a number of Departments, was used to transpose the Directive. However, following a judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against Ireland in July 2009, it became apparent that further legislative amendments were necessary in order to complete transposition.

The most recent of 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 under consent systems subject to the Directive are taken, such as decisions on IPPC licences and certain planning matters, practical information on how such decisions may be appealed is made available to the public.