Eoin Daly is a lecturer in the School of Law at University College Dublin. His main interests lie in the theoretical dimensions of constitutional religious freedom, particularly in the public education context. You may contact Eoin at Eoin.Daly[at]ucd.ie.
This essay raises some very important issues, with regards to the need for environmental rights to be enshrined in a new Constitution of Ireland. While much of the discussion in it is based around the substantive right to the environment, the mention of procedural rights needs further discussion. The rights of acccess to information, to participate in public decision-making, and to have decisions reviewed in court, already exisit in Ireland – but in a rather sad state. These rights, as Dr O’Gorman states, are guaranteed under the AARHUS Convention, which Ireland has signed up to, but has yet to fully implement.
These three rights have already been implemented, to some extent, via the Environental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations, and the Strategtic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Regulations, transposing the EU EIA and SEA Directives. However, statutory implementation of these rights has proven weak, both in terms of full and proper implementation of the AARHUS and EIA/SEA Directives. Even now, Ireland remains in breach of the EIA Directive, and European of European Court of Justice judgments in Case C-50/09 – Commission v. Ireland (3 March 2011) and Case C-66/06 – Commission v. Ireland (Nov 2008 & March 2011). Both the Planning and Development Acts and the National Monuments Act demand redrafting, but no such amendments are in sight, and fines against Ireland are piling up.
Furthermore, there was a political assault on the right to access to information, under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) by the previos administration, which seriously undermined the public’s ability to exercise their rights under AARHUS. The FoI Act as butchered in 2003, and despite promises made in the Programme for Government, to return it to it’s pre-2003 state, there has been no visible move to do so by the current Coalition. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0531/1224316989706.html
Enshrining the rights to access to information, participation in public decision-making, and access to justice, in the new Constitution, is essential if we are to adequately protect the human and natural environment, along with our national heritage, in the future.
If the Government is serious about realizing the goals contained in the plan, then it is imperative that they create a legal framework that will allow for it to happen. Empowering citizens with rights, and acknowledging its own duties, can only take place if the Government broadens the scope of the Constitutional Convention. Today, it is reported that “the Government said it would be prepared to consider whether other topics could be considered at a later date, in the light of experience.” http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0608/1224317502326.html
It is up to us to pressure the Government to include environmental rights, and this essay series is a very good first step.
Grateful to find this material as all the time over the last years I have been in court with the Shell To Sea people, no one gets any further than Public Order Act Offences 8 and 8 which is used to control protest. I was a campaigner for Aarhus these last 6 years but who runs the workshops to show how it can be applied. In Eastern Europe there are Aarhus Centres. We did a UPR submission and there was no strength behind the environment issue from any one else in Ireland.I push along towards a crime of ecocide – again no uptake on this way forward. There is a mine of material in the submissions given and discussed at the ABP hearings in Erris. A Dail Committee did do a great debate but limited to the fiscal terms governing oil and gas. My letter to the 21 members pointed out that this was not wide enough and the reduction of a way forward to economic views was very limited. The missing strand I pointed out was the environment as distinct from health and safety which was given space. Maybe there is need for a conversation and I am sure Erris would host it. It is the place where it has all been lived in the flesh.
Majella
This essay raises some very important issues, with regards to the need for environmental rights to be enshrined in a new Constitution of Ireland. While much of the discussion in it is based around the substantive right to the environment, the mention of procedural rights needs further discussion. The rights of acccess to information, to participate in public decision-making, and to have decisions reviewed in court, already exisit in Ireland – but in a rather sad state. These rights, as Dr O’Gorman states, are guaranteed under the AARHUS Convention, which Ireland has signed up to, but has yet to fully implement.
These three rights have already been implemented, to some extent, via the Environental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations, and the Strategtic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Regulations, transposing the EU EIA and SEA Directives. However, statutory implementation of these rights has proven weak, both in terms of full and proper implementation of the AARHUS and EIA/SEA Directives. Even now, Ireland remains in breach of the EIA Directive, and European of European Court of Justice judgments in Case C-50/09 – Commission v. Ireland (3 March 2011) and Case C-66/06 – Commission v. Ireland (Nov 2008 & March 2011). Both the Planning and Development Acts and the National Monuments Act demand redrafting, but no such amendments are in sight, and fines against Ireland are piling up.
Furthermore, there was a political assault on the right to access to information, under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) by the previos administration, which seriously undermined the public’s ability to exercise their rights under AARHUS. The FoI Act as butchered in 2003, and despite promises made in the Programme for Government, to return it to it’s pre-2003 state, there has been no visible move to do so by the current Coalition.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0531/1224316989706.html
Enshrining the rights to access to information, participation in public decision-making, and access to justice, in the new Constitution, is essential if we are to adequately protect the human and natural environment, along with our national heritage, in the future.
Yesterday, the Government launched its new plan: ‘Our Sustainable Future, a Framework for Sustainable Development for Ireland’.
http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/News/MainBody,30456,en.htm
If the Government is serious about realizing the goals contained in the plan, then it is imperative that they create a legal framework that will allow for it to happen. Empowering citizens with rights, and acknowledging its own duties, can only take place if the Government broadens the scope of the Constitutional Convention. Today, it is reported that “the Government said it would be prepared to consider whether other topics could be considered at a later date, in the light of experience.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0608/1224317502326.html
It is up to us to pressure the Government to include environmental rights, and this essay series is a very good first step.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0531/1224316989706.html
Grateful to find this material as all the time over the last years I have been in court with the Shell To Sea people, no one gets any further than Public Order Act Offences 8 and 8 which is used to control protest. I was a campaigner for Aarhus these last 6 years but who runs the workshops to show how it can be applied. In Eastern Europe there are Aarhus Centres. We did a UPR submission and there was no strength behind the environment issue from any one else in Ireland.I push along towards a crime of ecocide – again no uptake on this way forward. There is a mine of material in the submissions given and discussed at the ABP hearings in Erris. A Dail Committee did do a great debate but limited to the fiscal terms governing oil and gas. My letter to the 21 members pointed out that this was not wide enough and the reduction of a way forward to economic views was very limited. The missing strand I pointed out was the environment as distinct from health and safety which was given space. Maybe there is need for a conversation and I am sure Erris would host it. It is the place where it has all been lived in the flesh.
Majella