EU Commission highlights Irish failures in access to justice

national | environment | press release Friday March 19, 2010 07:21 by Tony Lowes - Friends of the Irish Environment tony at friendsoftheirishenvrionment dot org

The European Commission today issued Ireland with a final warning to provide its citizen with access to justice that is not ‘prohibitively expensive’. ‘There is no doubt whatsoever that the potential financial consequences of losing legal challenges is preventing NGOs and individuals from bringing cases against public bodies and so denying citizens their legal rights as Irish citizens.

EU Commission highlights Irish failures in access to justice

Today’s announcement from the European Commission about infringement proceedings highlights Ireland and the United Kingdom’s failure to provide its citizen with access to justice that is not ‘prohibitively expensive’. Ireland has received a ‘final warning’ before daily fines are sought.

A spokesman for the environmental lobby group Friends of the Irish Environment said that ‘While we understand many of the cases highlighted by the Commission today are being addressed in amendments to the Planning legislation, fundamental changes to the Irish justice system are also now required.

European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik pointed out today that "When important decisions affecting the environment are taken, the public must be allowed to challenge them. This important principle is established in European law. But the law also requires that these challenges must be affordable.”

The group claims that ‘In spite of the fact that the law explicitly states that such challenges must not be ‘prohibitively expensive’, legal proceedings in Ireland can be ruinously so. There is no doubt whatsoever that the potential financial consequences of losing challenges is preventing NGOs and individuals from bringing cases against public bodies and so denying citizens their legal rights.

Also being challenged by the Commission is the well established procedure in Irish law requiring those seeking to have projects halted required to give expensive and often unaffordable undertakings of deposits that may be used to compensate defendants if an injunction is eventually not confirmed by a full court proceeding.

The Commission alleges that such undertakings are ‘serious impediment to the use of such injunctions, which are essential for temporarily halting operations that may have a potentially damaging impact on the environment while their legality is being assessed.’

Attribution: Spokesman
Comment: Tony Lowes 027 74771 & 0872176316