Thread by @boucherhayes

This is quite a slap in the face from Brussels for Ireland's care for the environment. It comes from the Director in charge of environmental implementation at the Commission speaking at a recent online conference.
Thread ...

https://twitter.com/FIEIRELAND/status/1488255757057499145

1) "About 50% of Ireland's urban waste
waters are still not collected and treated in compliance with the Urban wastewater treatment
directive"

2) "Many bird species are in serious decline, and there is even a serious risk of extinction of certain breeding species"

3) "With less than 2.5% of Irish marine waters protected this represents one of the poorest records in Europe"

4) "Only 15% of terrestrial habitats are in favourable condition and over half are suffering from
ongoing decline."

5) "Despite peat extraction and afforestation being key economic activities in Ireland no Environmental Impact Assesment has been carried out for any projects in these categories." He added the suspicion that this was maybe because, "they are very important economic activities."

6) "Ireland continues to be the most expensive member state in which to make an environmental claim before the courts. And we are not drawing the attention of the Irish authorities to this for the first time. It has important consequences. And the commission will act on this"

7) He notes "increasingly aggressive stance" taken against environmental campaigners in Ireland. There is evidence of use SLAPP suits but also aggressive and negative reporting in the mainstream media and even from politicians like threatening to cut off funding to certain NGOs"

A SLAPP suit is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. They are brought ostensibly as defamation actions but their real purpose is to intimidate or financially burden campaigners.
On the rule of law he concluded with his harshest assessment ...

8) "We believe that radical change of behaviour is necessary because it's highly unusual for an advanced society like Ireland to witness such conduct which can be seen in more polemic places in the European Union. It was a surprise for us to hear this happened in Ireland" 😳