The European Court of Justice has ruled that Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations towards clean ground and surface water as required under EU law.
The European Commission has spent at least 18 years pursuing Ireland for shortcoming in the way the state has applied Water Framework Directive.
The directive is designed to monitor water quality and ensure that pollution is kept under control.
“Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations”, said Judge Thomas von Danwitz, Vice-President of the Court of Justice of the European Union as he read out the verdict this morning.
The European Commission said the verdict “underlines that effective water management plays a critical role in building water resilience. It is a key priority under the EU Water Resilience Strategy to support Member States with implementation and enforcement challenges.”
In Response, Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne TD said:
“I am carefully studying the judgment with the assistance of the Officials in my Department and in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General and the CSSO, and do not propose to comment in detail immediately, other than to say that the Department recognises the importance and significance of the judgment and the findings of technical non-compliance therein in respect of the transposition of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC.
The Government has made very considerable progress in recent years: Ireland has been engaging with the European Commission on this matter throughout all stages of the proceedings and recently sought to address the complaint through additional transposing legislation which was enacted earlier this year.
We will respond to this judgment swiftly with positive and constructive actions in order to bring Ireland into full compliance and the Department will put in place a work programme to review the Irish statute book to identify any necessary amendments and to address all outstanding matters identified in this judgment. We welcome ongoing engagement with the Commission in this regard and remain cognisant of Ireland’s duty of sincere cooperation.”
The way Ireland has so far implemented the law has been repeatedly questioned by environmentalists and by the EU.
The European Commission first raised concerns in 2007 when it sent a letter to the Irish government warning of Ireland’s “failure to fulfil its obligations under Articles 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 23 and 24” of the directive.
By 2019, the European Commission warned that it was “still unconvinced as to the state of progress of the transposition of that directive into domestic law”.
The European Commission listed 33 areas of concern. Some of these were resolved before the case came to court.
But a number of failings by Ireland remained.
Judges agreed. This morning the European Court of Justice ruled:
“By failing to transpose fully or correctly Article 2(38), Article 4(2), Article 5(2), Article 7(3), Article 9(2), Article 11(3)(a) to (d) in relation to groundwater, Article 11(3)(e), Article 11(3)(i) in relation to surface water, Article 11(3)(l) in relation to groundwater, and points 1.4 and 1.5 of Annex II to, and points 1.3.1 to 1.3.5 and point 2.4.5, first paragraph, of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under those provisions.”
The court has ordered Ireland to pay the costs.