British legislation dating from the 1870s still in force in Ireland, which sets limits to animal experimentation, does not meet EU standards, the European Commission has warned the Government.
The Commission has sent Ireland a "reasoned opinion" about the 1876 legislation, the first stage in legal action which could end up in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The legislation, the Commission argues, defines the term "experiment" more narrowly than the EU Animal Experiments Directive of 1986 and omits certain other requirements of the directive.
Most notably, the fines provided for in the Act, a matter of shillings, do not meet the EU Treaty's obligation on member-states to have penalties which are "effective, proportionate and dissuasive". A spokesman for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr Ciaran O'Donovan, welcomed the warning and called on the Government to update the legislation.
The Commission has also sent Ireland a reasoned opinion for non-respect of the 1985 Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, which requires environmental impact assessment reports of a wide range of projects before they are authorised. The Commission disputes Ireland's contention that industrial wind farms are not covered by the directive against the background of an increasing number of wind farms being put forward for development consent.
While the Commission supports wind energy, it insists that environmentally significant industrial wind farm projects are properly assessed as to their environmental effects - for example, in relation to culturally important landscapes, to rare habitats such as blanket bog and to rare and endangered bird species.
