The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE, Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, commonly known as the Aarhus Convention, was adopted in June 1998. Although Ireland signed the convention at the time, it is the only EU member state yet to ratify it. The process of ratification has been delayed for several reasons or because of several factors which I will explain in more detail later.
I am pleased to announce that after much challenging and time-consuming work, these factors have been remedied through legislation and the Attorney General's office has confirmed the State may now proceed to ratify the convention. Given that the convention involves a charge on public funds, albeit in the form of a voluntary contribution, the Attorney General has advised the approval of the Dáil be sought. This contribution is currently in the amount of €5,000 per annum. The Attorney General's office has also confirmed that the State may also ratify the genetically modified organisms, GMO, amendment to the convention and the pollutant release transfer registers, PRTR, protocol, both of which have been fully implemented in national legislation.
The convention itself has its origins in Principle No. 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development 1992 which proclaimed that environmental issues are best handled with the participation of citizens and that individuals should have access to information concerning the environment and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. Access to remedial measures and redress should also be provided. The convention has three pillars: access to information, public participation, and access to justice. It has been implemented in the EU by two directives – EU Directive 2003/4/EC on access to information on the environment and EU Directive 2003/35/EC on public participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice.
Ireland has faced some difficulty in ratifying the convention. First, Ireland is one of a small number of EU member states which has a dualist legal system. Most others use a monoist system which means international law takes direct effect in the national law. Under Ireland's system, however, specific implementation provisions are required for each and every provision of conventions.
Second, the European Commission challenged the compatibility of our system of judicial review with the requirements of the public participation directive and, by extension, the Aarhus Convention in the European Court of Justice, ECJ, case C427/07. The State lost the case in several areas, notably in terms of the uncertainty of the level of costs potentially associated with judicial review. At that time, losing applicants may have faced multiple sets of costs if they had the costs of the defendant and notice parties awarded against them.
Addressing this ECJ judgment was a complex process which adversely impacted the ratification process. The Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010 was used to address these issues which led to the closure of the case. The traditional costs-follow-the-event rule no longer applies in cases relevant to and covered by the convention. Instead, under the measures introduced by my Department, the default position is that all parties to such proceedings must bear their own costs. However, if the applicant is granted the relief sought or if the defendant is found to have breached a provision of environmental law, the applicant may have all or some of his costs paid by the defendant. If the case involves notice parties, they may also be required to contribute to the applicant's costs, if the court considers it appropriate.
The Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 introduced further measures such as the requirement that judicial notice of the convention be taken. Following a comprehensive assessment by both my Department and the Office of the Attorney General to confirm all parts have been properly implemented, the Attorney General recently confirmed that ratification can proceed. Ratification, subject to Dáil approval, was approved by Government two weeks ago.
The GMO amendment was adopted as an amendment to the Aarhus Convention in 2005. It puts in place requirements for public participation in decisions concerning the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms. These requirements are more specific than the general requirements concerning public participation which apply to other issues covered by the Aarhus Convention. The requirements of the amendment are consistent with EU Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs, implemented in Ireland by the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) Regulations 2003. Accordingly, no further legislative amendments were necessary to provide for ratification of the amendment.
The protocol to the Aarhus Convention on PRTR requires the establishment of publicly accessible, national registers that contain information on a range of pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency is the competent authority in Ireland and it launched Ireland's PRTR in October 2011 which is accessible online at prtr.ie. The Irish PRTR is essentially about provision of information and it contains information about emissions from more than 300 licensed industrial facilities throughout the country and enables members of the public to find out about the major sources of polluting emissions in their immediate environs.
Ratification of the Aarhus Convention is a commitment in the programme for Government. The importance of ratifying this convention has been recognised by all parties and has been the subject of numerous parliamentary questions and Oireachtas debates in recent years. With the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development taking place this month and in advance of Ireland's EU Presidency in 2013, it is important that Ireland ratifies the convention to fulfil its international obligations. Ireland must show its commitment to the Aarhus Convention to underpin our support for improving international environmental governance generally as well as supporting calls for a global treaty based on the Aarhus Convention. As I said last week during the launch of the framework for sustainable development for Ireland, my objective is to make Ireland an environmental leader. Ratification of the Aarhus Convention will be another stepping stone to this goal. As mentioned, the convention has its origins in the first Rio conference and it will be appropriate and timely for the House to approve ratification in advance of the Rio+20 conference.
