THE Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, has strongly disputed the European Commission's right to query the controversial plan for the sewage treatment plant at Mutton Island, Galway.
But An Taisce said the Minister's "defiant" decision to go ahead with the £25 million project was a gratuitous snub to the Commission, in the light of its serious reservations. The Commission, which was to have provided 85 per cent of the funding, was quite entitled to query it.
Mr Howlin has told the EU Regional Policy Commissioner, Ms Monika Wulf Mathies, that he regards its interventions as "insensitive" and "inappropriate" as well as being potentially prejudicial in favouring a mainland site for the project at Lough Atalia.
His letter to the commissioner takes particular exception to the Commission's decision to circulate copies of a consultants' report on the issue to interested parties in Galway "to help inform the debate that is taking place" and that it would look with interest on any further comments it might receive.
Accusing the Commission of setting itself up as a court of appeal, he said: "It is not, in my view, a legitimate function of the Commission to seek to promote debate, over the heads of the national and local authorities, on a specific proposal which has passed through the development consent process."
Mr Howlin maintained that any review by the Commission or its consultants of the environmental aspects of the project was "not appropriate", given that there had been no finding that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) was unreasonably determined and it had not been challenged in the Irish courts.
Nonetheless, the Commission had "entered into a detailed analysis of environmental issues considered in the EIA, in some instances on the basis of information provided to them by persons objecting to the Mutton Island location which was not made available to the EIA process", Mr Howlin wrote.
