EU legal action - Ireland’s green image under threat

DESPITE the protestations of Environment Minister Dick Roche, the inescapable and damaging implication of the latest volley of legal writs from Brussels is that Ireland is not taking the environmental laws of the EU seriously.

The European Commission is taking the Government to court on a range of health and environmental charges, including the failure to tackle noxious odours at State-run sewage-treatment plants.

Mr Roche is being disingenuous when he claims not to have been warned by Brussels about breaches of the environmental rules. This is not the first occasion the Government’s lax attitude towards environmental issues has been criticised.