The dispute between the European Commission and the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, intensified yesterday with the insistence by the commission that proper notice of prosecutions had been sent to Ireland.
The commission said breaches of environmental regulations had been the subject of numerous communications and should not have been a surprise to the Minister.
A spokesman also confirmed that the failures it identified by press release on Monday were just "a representative sample" and further cases had passed the stage where the European Court of Justice had initially found against Ireland.
However, Mr Roche remained adamant yesterday that proper notice had not been given and said debate about complex environmental issues had not been helped because the commission had chosen not to provide his department with "the simple courtesy" of a copy of its press statement.
Monday's press statement revealed that the EU was progressing action against Ireland on issues related to the Derrybrien landslide in 2003; foul odours from the Dublin Bay sewage treatment plant and failure to deliver a report on the ozone layer.
Commenting yesterday, senior official with the EU's DG Environment section Liam Cashman said those cases "don't represent the totality" and added that there were "other cases in the system which are similar".
These include:
Illegal dumping in the Boyne estuary at Drogheda and the failure of Ireland to remove material for which a temporary permit had been granted. Two final warnings have already been issued.
A general system complaint about the State's failure to enforce uniform planning regulations illustrated by the case of a sawmills in Co Offaly which was refused retention permission by Bord Pleanála almost two years ago.
A list of 12 separate cases of breaches of the EU waste directive which was initially lodged in 2001
Cases involving the failure of the State to implement pollution reduction measures in designated shellfish sites
Failure to implement the nitrates directive and produce an acceptable nitrates management plan
In the case of the State's failure in relation to nitrates, the ozone layer and the shellfish measures the EU Court of Justice has already made initial judgments against Ireland and second warnings have issued in each case.
The next step in the process is for the commission to seek penalties which could be between €50,000 and €60,000 a day.
