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AN BORD SNIP: CUTS TO ENVIRONMENT FACE DANGER OF FINES

Ireland will inevitably face daily fines from the European Court of Justice if cuts are imposed on environmental funding.

The stark warning came from Friends of the Irish Environment, an environmental lobby group that specialises in European environmental law. The group has provided the Commission with a number of dossiers since 1997.

Director Tony Lowes said that ‘Ireland now faces 8 cases in which the original court judgment has not been addressed and the European Commission has notified Ireland that it is returning to Court to seek fines for non-compliance.'

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FIE has begun a campaign to end the unauthorised extraction of peat which is now taking place on a vast scale covering thousands of hectares. With no records of the amount of peat extracted in any County, Ireland can not meet its legal obligation to ensure that before development consent is given projects likely to have significant effects on the environment be made subject to a requirement for development consent and an assessment with regard to their effect as recently required by the European Court of Justice. [C215/06, 49].

The peat is going not to retail garden centres which are sensitive to public campaigns but to the horticultural trade in the South East of England, Holland, South America - described by our Minster for Trade as an ‘environmentally friendly product.'

Read the first letter to a Minister | See the first photos |

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As the Minister for the Environment confirms that the European Commission has sent Ireland a Letter of Formal Notice over the unlicensed storage of waste at the site of the former steelworks at Haulbowline Island, County Cork, we publish statistics that show the Minister has not made good on his promise to ensure improved compliance with European Law.

Ireland's record before the EU Court has shown no improvement in the period 2008 - 2009. Ireland is currently subject to 28 environmental infringement proceedings, including 5 which are returning to Court after a Judgment against the State to seek penalties for non-compliance with that Judgment.

Nowhere is the Government's failure more clear than in their handling of the 9 hectares of waste assigned to the Minsiter for the Environment in 2003.

If this waste was being held by any other party than the State, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Local Authority would be the first in Court to require the holder to apply for a license. Instead, nothing has been done, month after month, year after year. Six years of reports and delays - as the toxic residue seeps into the harbour and blows in the wind.

Read the Press Release   |   See the statistics   |  Today's Irish Examiner

Read our Report on the 'Toxic Island'

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An 18 month investigation into why complaints about quarries around Ireland that are not meeting conditions imposed on them by local authorities has ended with a letter from the Ombudsman to FIE stating that the legislation designed to regulate quarries is unenforceable.

Quarry registration was the last section of the 2000 Planning Act to be implemented and it did not come into effect until 2005. Now 4 years later the Ombudsman is unable to make finding of maladministration against a local authority for not enforcing the conditions they imposed as ‘they are not in a position legally to conduct an administrative action'.

The Ombudsman noted that the Department has provided no time frame for amending the legislation. Not only has the environment been damaged by this long standing legislative failure and great hardships imposed on residents, but many millions in development levies can no longer be collected.

Read the Ombudsman's letter   |   Read Our Press Release   |  Read Stephen Price's two part series in the Sunday Buisiness Post on this story

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The Office of the Information Commissioner ruled that a case FIE had taken against the Attorney General was ‘settled' when late into the appeal process the document was released. While provision for settlement exists in the Freedom of Information legislation, the Access to Information legislation requires a decision once a case is begun regardless of the release of the information.

FIE believes that in many cases, such as this one, [there were 55 cases settled under FoI this way last year and 2 under Access] the body holding the information knows from the first that they have no grounds to withhold a document but the information is of such sensitivity that they chose to refuse to release it, knowing that most applicants would neither use the internal appeal method or even less pay €150 to have an administrative review. In the unlikely event that an applicant would do so they could then release it without censure for their sustained refusal as a ‘settlement' is reached.

Read the file - and comments from members of the EEB Law List.

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A Ministerial Instruction from the Department of Environment to nine County Managers instructing them not to refuse one-off houses in Special Protection Areas for the Hen harrier was based on ‘scientific advice' that did not exist. FIE investigated the letter which claimed that ‘the scientific advice available to Minister suggests that development of single rural dwellings does not in general represent a threat to the Hen harrier or its habitat. ‘

In response to a request under Access to Information on the Environment, the Department admitted that no such scientific advice existed. In fact, internal Department emails shows ‘one off housing having gone beyond acceptable levels in particular sites.'

FIE has now written to the County Managers involved - Kerry, Limerick, Cork, Clare, Galway, Laois, Offaly, Tipperary, Tipperary, and Monaghan - informing them that they must ensure that any planning permissions for one-off houses must be subject to a suitable assessment and that there may indeed be cases in which permission will need to be refused.

Press Release   |   Documentation   |   Full submission on the Hen harrier designation process

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BREAKING NEWS: Mount Anville Primary School in Stillorgan has written to parents informing them that their balloon release has been cancelled to avoid bringing their ‘excellent school into disrepute.'

Now, FIE has written to the children with a Gift Certificate from the World Wildlife Fund to send a injured turtle to a rehabilitation centre in the school's name.

PRESS RELEASE   |  LETTER TO THE CHILDREN    |  VIEW THE GIFT CERTIFICATE

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Friends of the Irish Environment have written to a Dublin primary school in an attempt to stop the growing trend of schools using mass balloon releases for fund raising.

On May 14 Mount Anville Primary School in Stillorgan plans to release thousands of balloons as part of their fund raising activities.Each student gets a sales sheet and tries to sell as many balloons as possible. The balloons are tagged with a message asking the finder to return the label. Prizes are given to the buyer and seller of the balloon.

Balloons become 'marine debris', a lethal hazard for sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish, and seabirds who mistake them for jellyfish or other natural prey.

Press Release  |  Letter to school  |  Letter to Minister  | Irish Independent coverage

Ryan Tuberdy and FIE discuss balloons as an environmental hazard at the time of President McAleese releasing baloons in a 2005 controversy.

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Described as ‘an incredible success," by World Wildlife Fund International Director General James Leape, Earth Hour 2009 saw monuments, castles, public buildings across Ireland join 88 countries around the globe in going dark for one hour.

Last year Ireland was the only country in Europe to take part in Earth Hour. This year the 65 European Union buildings in Brussels went dark as 500,000 households turned off in 193 cities, towns and municipalities in that country alone - about one in three households.

Iconic buildings across Ireland turned their lights off, including Government buildings, Leinster House, the Custom House, and the Four Courts. Countrywide, the Rock of Cashel, the most visited heritage site in Ireland, was plunged into darkness as was Cahir Castle, Ormonde Castle, Carrick on Suir, Donegal Castle and Trim Castle in Co Meath, the largest Anglo Norman castle in Ireland.

EirGrid reported a reduction for the hour of 70 MW, enough to power 45,000 homes or 100,000 plasma TVs. 

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FIE wrote to the Forest Service to ask why lime trees more than 100 feet from a building were felled without a licence. FIE also requested that mature trees which form an integral part of this 19th century historic landscape are given full protection.

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Read about the extraordinary removal of more than 100,000 hectares of land that should have been protected for the endangered Hen harrier. Be astonished by the documentation showing how the Minister then responsible for the designations - Eamon O Cuiv - gave Brussels ‘inflexible and unreasonable' attitude towards the Habitats Directive as a reason for voting NO in the Nice Referendum in 2001. Are we surprised then by the massive IFA public meetings that led to the banning of Duchas [The Heritage Service of the Department of the Environment] representatives from farms and Duchas's closure by the Cabinet in 2003? The designations were slashed to allow afforestation to continue when forestry represents at best only a temporary habitat and replaces a permanent habitat for these birds. Key habitats were excluded, and 10,000 hectares more forestry was permitted in protected areas which are already at carrying capacity due to existing forestry.

Read the submission.    |    See the maps showing the vanishing Hen harrier.

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Friends of the Irish Environment are seeking to have Ireland brought before the European Court of Justice for the unlicensed storage of hazardous waste at Haulbowline Ireland. Having written without success to four Ministers, FIE is bringing an Infringement Complaint under the terms of the EU Court Judgment of 2005 [Case C-494/01]. This Judgment established a systemic failure of Ireland ‘to meet the obligations to take the requisite measures to ensure that waste is disposed of without endangering human health and without harming the environment’.

‘Because of the nature of this Judgment against Ireland, we understand that the Commission will be able to act rapidly to ensure that the holders of the waste at Haulbowline Island will confirm with the European Directive and be subject to the required licensing procedures.'

  EU Infringement Complaint   |  Toxic Island:The Story of Haulbowline Island

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At 8.30 pm on March 28, people around the world will turn their lights off for one hour in a universal effort to show that it is possible to take action on global warming.

Coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund and supported in Ireland by Friends of the Irish Environment, Earth Hour is set to become the world's biggest climate change initiatives - with a goal of 1000 cities and 1,000,000,000 people.

Last year Ireland was alone in the EU in supporting the effort. This year, 74 countries have signed up to date - including, for the first time, Belfast, London, and Paris - which announced this week that the Eiffel tower will join the world's landmarks in going dark for Earth Hour.

See Our Earth Hour Page and download the Poster ‘VOTE EARTH' | Read about the launch in the News of the World |  Press Release | Sign up to be counted.

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The Irish Independent's columnist Kevin Myers wielded his pen to mock Eamon Ryan's refusal of uranium prospecting licenses, claiming in his rant that it was the ‘logic of the kindergarten' and that ‘more than that I cannot, say, simply because I have no words to describe my feelings'. He was therefore ‘utterly incapable of framing a reaction to the welcome given the Minister's decision by Friends of the Irish Environment, that "it marked the advent of a non-hypocritical energy regime".

FIE's reply went unpublished, but it is alleged to be widely circulating in the Irish Independent offices.

"He has ‘no words to describe his feelings'. Aha. That would be nice. But it is not to be so..."

Read the exchange...

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FIE is today publishing a Report about the industrial legacy of contamination at Haulbowline with more than 20 photographs, including those of waste being buried on the island during the 1990s.

A companion ‘Briefing Document' contains analysis of Reports, documents, and emails relating to dumping on the island 1974 - 2008. The Briefing Document includes the laboratory results from testing of the surface of the site during 2008 and of the hazardous waste exported to Germany 2007 - 2008.

The results in these tests make it clear that the levels of heavy metals on the East Tip of Haulbowline Island are many times the DIV [Dutch Intervention Values] and far, far, far in excess of what Irish law permits or what the Department of the Environment has revealed.

Toxic Island: The Story of Haulbowline Island   |   Briefing document   |   Press Release

NEW:
The Department of the Environment told the Irish Examiner last week that ‘The contractor may have sent them but we cannot locate them [NRGE Report]'.

We add to our BRIEFING DOCUMENT a 28 August 2008 letter from the Department acknowledging the delivery of the Safety File confirming ‘Section 4 contains a report by a NRGE Engineer'. It also refers to section 5, ‘Shipping Analysis Reports by Ships.'

The Department must stop the cover-up now and release these test results, which show levels of contamination far far far beyond anything suggested by the figures released to date by the Minister.

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Rockchapple in the north Cork Mountains is already known as the Sitka spruce capital of Ireland. Now, developers who already have permission for wind turbines in these mountains are seeking to construct a further 13. They have split these into two applications, doubling the costs for objectors.

The proposed site is located in a designated Special Protection Area for the hen harrier. This developer already has permission for nearby turbines - but only on condition that a study on the interaction of the turbines and hen harriers was carried out on site.

As this wind farm is not yet constructed the study can not be done.

Thus the cumulative impact of these developments on the range and scale of foraging areas critical to the survival of the Hen harrier remains unknown. To grant permission now risks a developer investing in a multi-million development and subsequently being required to cease development on the grounds of the adverse impact on the habitat of an protected species.

Read the Objection.

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John Gormley's welcome for the decision by the European Commission to close two long-standing nature protection cases has outraged environmentalists.

Friends of the Irish Environment says that while these two old cases have indeed been closed, Ireland has actually fallen further behind in the protection of birds since the Minister took office.Other Member States have made progress while Ireland has stood still. Ireland's SPA [Special Protection Areas for Birds] network is now the smallest in size of all 27 European member states.

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15 environmental groups have called for the reversal in cuts in Dublin public transport. ‘Both Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus have begun a downward spiral that will make our car dependency even worse. This is against every environmental and sustainable principle', the groups claim.

Friends of the Irish Environment said that environmental groups had come together because the decision signaled that urban transport was ‘going the wrong way.' 

These cuts make any moves to limit private transport in the city even more remote than they are now when Ireland's transport emissions are the fastest growing source of our greenhouse gases. ‘

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