- Engage with his government colleagues as a matter of the highest priority, to highlight the need to pause the advance of the bill, pending a full and thorough review of the whole bill’s Aarhus compliance;
- Communicate clearly to them that it was untenable to advance the bill to the Seanad in this context, before the Oireachtas summer recess, and to enact it and to put it in front of the President to sign, knowing its legal basis to be in such question.
When the guillotine fell, among the hundreds of unscrutinised government amendments that were then automatically added to the bill were two new sections, with similar issues to those which the ACCC has taken issue with. It’s a mess.
- Attracta Uí Bhroin is a Law Officer with Environmental Law Ireland and formerly an Environmental Law Officer with the IEN