Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government today (12 June 2012) presented a motion to the Select Sub-Committee on Environment, Community and Local Government proposing approval by Dáil Éireann of the ratification by Ireland of the Aarhus Convention[1].
In addition to the Aarhus Convention, it is also proposed to ratify the GMO Amendment to the Convention and a Protocol to the Convention on Pollutant Release and Transfer, both of which have been fully implemented in national legislation.
The Minister stated “my objective is to make Ireland an environmental leader. Ratification of the Aarhus Convention will be another stepping stone to this goal.”
The final step in the process of ratification is consideration of the motion by Dáil Éireann on Thursday. Ireland signed the Aarhus Convention on its adoption in June 1998. Ireland is the only EU Member State yet to ratify it. The Attorney General’s Office has recently confirmed that the State is now in a position to ratify the Convention.
“The process of ratification has been delayed for a number of factors but I am pleased to announce that after a lot of challenging and time-consuming work, these factors have been remedied through legislation, and the Attorney General’s Office has confirmed that the State may now proceed to ratify the Convention”.
Following the proposed approval of the Motion by the Dáil, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will arrange deposit of the formal instruments with the United Nations. The Agreements will enter into force 90 days from that date.
Ends
Notes for Editors
The Aarhus Convention
The Convention, itself, has its origins in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development of 1992, which proclaimed that environmental issues are best handled with the participation of citizens, 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 Aarhus Convention lays down a set of basic rules to promote citizen’s involvement in environmental matters and improve enforcement of environmental law; its provisions are broken down into three Pillars: Access to Information, Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making and Access to Justice. The Convention has been implemented in the EU by two Directives; Directive 2003/4/EC on Access to Information on the Environment and Directive 2003/35/EC on Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making and Access to Justice.
The Convention is legally binding on those States that have chosen to become Parties to it.
GMO Amendment
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 and, therefore, no further legislative amendments were necessary to provide for ratification of the amendment.
PRTR Protocol
The Protocol to the Aarhus Convention on Pollutant Release Transfer Registers 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 on-line at www.prtr.ie. The Irish PRTR is essentially about provision of information and it contains information about emissions from more than 300 licensed industrial facilities across the country and enables members of the public to find out about the major sources of polluting emissions in their immediate environs.