EU Directives.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 June 2004

Tuesday, 15 June 2004

Questions (490)

Simon Coveney

Question:

543 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his Department has received a letter of formal warning or similar correspondence from the environmental directorate of the EU Commission relating to concerns on the part of that directorate regarding the proposal currently before An Bord Pleanála to develop a large scale landfill at Garrynagree, Dungarvan, County Waterford; if so, if he has responded to this correspondence; if not, when he proposes to respond and the terms in which; if he will publish the text of the correspondence received and his response; if the correspondence received from the Commission has been furnished to An Bord Pleanála and the Environmental Protection Agency in order that their attention may be drawn to the Commission’s concerns in a timely manner having regard to the exercise of their own statutory function relating to the proposal; and if the correspondence will be placed in the library of the Houses of the Oireachtas. [17169/04]

Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Cullen)

My Department has received a formal letter of notice from the European Commission on a proposed landfill development at Garrynagree in County Waterford. I intend to have a formal response issued to the Commission in advance of the extended reply deadline of 1 August 2004.

Any consultations regarding correspondence of this kind that take place with partner bodies of my Department would be for the purpose of the compilation, by Ireland, of as complete a response as possible to the issues raised by the Commission. It would not be for the purposes of inputting the Commission's correspondence into the decision-making processes of bodies who are independent in the exercise of their statutory functions in particular cases; correspondence of this kind from the Commission would more usually arise after such decisions are made. The legal advice to my Department is that it would not be appropriate to publish or generally make available copies of such correspondence with the European Commission, as it comprises material which could form the basis of pleadings in subsequent legal proceedings before the European Court of Justice.

Reports have been sought from the Environmental Protection Agency and Waterford County Council on the Commission's correspondence on the Garrynagree case. These have now been received and are under consideration in my Department.