The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, expects an EU case against Ireland for its alleged failure to implement the 1999 Landfill Directive to be withdrawn this week.
He was reacting yesterday to European Environment Commissioner Ms Margot Wallstrom's high-profile decision to "name and shame" Ireland for breaching EU safety rules on waste disposal in landfill sites.
At a seminar in Brussels, Ms Wallstrom listed six states, including Ireland, that had not met the July 2001 deadline for transposing the 1999 EU directive on landfill into national law, thus putting the health of their citizens in jeopardy. But an Irish Government official attending the seminar told the Commissioner the complaint was not justified because Ireland had passed the required legislation and had informed the EU Commission on July 30th last.
Mr Cullen signed the relevant orders on July 2nd, in one of his first acts after taking office. "I am very happy to confirm that Ireland is fully compliant with the Landfill Directive", he said, adding that he expected the case to be withdrawn.
A spokeswoman for Ms Wallstrom said later that officials were still checking whether the Irish legislation met the requirements of the directive. Until they were satisfied, a legal action for non-compliance would remain open.
Ms Wallstrom's complaint encompassed more than just the updating of Irish law. She also listed the number of legal actions brought against states for failure to manage individual landfill sites and named Ireland as a serial offender.
Five actions are pending against Ireland for badly-managed landfill sites, a figure exceeded only by Greece and Spain, each with 10 sites and Italy with eight. France, Germany and Britain have just one complaint each over landfills. Of the five Irish cases cited by the Commission, four are currently awaiting a hearing before the European Court of Justice. They involve dumping at two sites in Co Laois, one in Co Louth and one in Co Waterford - at the back strand in Tramore.
In the fifth case, a site on the Boyne Estuary in Co Meath, the Commission has had an e-mail reply but still not had a substantive response to a Letter of Formal Notice sent on April 25th last, which normally carries a two-month deadline.
Ms Wallstrom said after her visit to Ireland earlier this year, she was aware of concern among citizens about waste disposal because she had received many letters of complaint. More needed to be done to encourage recycling.
The Commission complains that Ireland failed to ensure that waste disposal was carried out under permit, and to prevent uncontrolled dumping.
Referring to the Commission's complaint that many local authority landfills remain to be licensed, Mr Cullen said Ireland had submitted a defence in August pointing out that all but one small landfill had now been licensed.
