IRELAND is in serious breach of European law by failing to incorporate the EU Habitats Directive into Irish law and could face prosecution in the European Court of Justice, according to the Heritage Council.
The council voiced its concern at the ongoing destruction of wildlife habitat" and said it was commissioning an urgent report on the extent of bulldozing and land reclamation in the Burren.
The council wants to meet the Department of Agriculture to express its concern that some of this reclamation is being undertaken in advance of an application by the landowners involved to join the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme.
Echoing complaints from a number of environmental groups, the council said it was "particularly concerned" that the 1976 Wildlife Act has not yet been amended to allow for the designation of Natural Heritage Areas to protect endangered wildlife habitats.
The council also said that the failure to incorporate the EU Habitats Directive into Irish law was "of even greater environmental concern" and ran the risk of "seriously jeopardising European funding for the protection of special areas of conservation".
Referring to recent issues such as the Masonite plant, the Mutton Island sewage treatment works on Galway Bay and Pollboy Mill, near Ballinasloe, it said these controversies had arisen from a lack of public consultation.
