Endangering human health and causing environmental harm is not what any government wants on its CV. But that is exactly what the Irish Government has been doing in the opinion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice. Government press people are trying to kill the story. The Government press response today (as carried in the Irish Times today) claiming that this was ancient history and that things are different now does not stand up. Already further legal action is threatened by the Commission in relation to a proposal to put a superdump next to a candidate Special Area of Conservation in Waterford. The Government tried to suppress the Commission's warning letter to it (known as a 'Reasoned Opinion'). Happily the letter came into the public domain despite that effort.

The Government of Ireland was slammed for ‘persistent widespread and serious’ failure to comply with EU waste law in the European Court Thursday (Sept. 23). Advocate-General Geelhoed told the Court that as a result of this failure the government has endangered human health and caused environmental harm. In a formal opinion delivered to the Court in Case C-494/01Commission v Ireland the Advocate-General recommends that the Court should declare Ireland to be in breach of no fewer than four separate Articles of the Waste Directive and also in breach of Article 10 of the EC Treaty.

The Advocate-General’s opinion is not binding but is normally followed by the Court. Because of the significance of the issues at stake in the case, both parties’ arguments were heard by the Court’s Grand Chamber (full panel) in July. The EU Commission brought the case to the Court following complaints about breaches of EU waste law at twelve separate locations throughout the country, including Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick, Carlow, Laois and Louth.

Government lawyers had claimed that these were only 'isolated incidents' and that there was no evidence of 'actual environmental harm'. The Advocate General flatly rejected these claims and in an unusually strongly worded opinion said that there were sufficient grounds for establishing that Ireland had infringed the Waste Directive in a ‘general and structural manner’ - in effect institutionalised lawbreaking. The government has, he says, infringed its obligations because, among other reasons, it has failed to ‘prevent the abandonment, dumping and uncontrolled disposal of waste, thereby endangering human health and causing environmental harm’.

This is the first time any EU Member State has been criticised for breaching EU health and environment law in a ‘general and structural manner’. The Advocate General’s opinion is likely to prove devastating to the Government’s defence strategy in this landmark case. His recommendation that Ireland should pay the legal costs of the case would see a hefty legal bill for the Irish taxpayer - another consequence of the ‘persistent widespread and serious’ failure by Government to obey and uphold a fundamental law which is supposed to protect public health and the environment.

Whether any of this makes any real difference will depend in part on whether people know about it. So far the Government Press people are playing a blinder in killing the story. The line is that this is all ancient history and they're reformed characters now...

The full text of the Advocate General’s Opinion is on the European Court’s website at www.curia.eu.int. Go here and click on the case number in the top right corner (Case C-494/01) to Access Full Text of Advocate General's Opinion.

The Dublin Grassroots Network (DGN) has called on the owners of the exclusive Berkeley Court Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin to cancel a major international weapons conference due to take place at the hotel on October 19th and 20th.

The 'Jane’s Less Lethal Weapons 2004 Conference - Critical Incident Intervention' conference is effectively a trade fair for tools of torture and political repression, according to the DGN, which is vowing to stop the event from going ahead.

Mick Dooley of the DGN said: "If the Jury’s Doyle Hotel group doesn’t cancel this conference, we will call on the public to come out and force it to be shut down."

"The weapons in question include electro-shock batons, stun guns, plastic bullets, Tasers, CR Gas, pepper spray and the new sonic-bombs that have been deployed to 'disperse' crowds in Iraq.

"Put simply, people who sell these tools of political repression and torture and people who want to buy them will be gathering at the Berkeley Court to do business," Dooley said. "Irish people will not tolerate that."

"The Berkeley Court conference is the first event of its kind ever to be held in Ireland," Dooley said. "Apparently this country is now being seen as a potential growth market for the arms industry. The nature of the event is extremely provocative, coming at a time when revulsion at the war machine and the arms industry is running high across the world."

Northern Ireland's appalling track record in plastic bullet deaths is being celebrated by the inclusion of Colin Burrows, a former RUC superintendent, as conference host and main speaker.

The speakers also include senior officers from the West Midlands Police, which framed the Birmingham Six and others, and from the LAPD, responsible for beating Rodney King. The CEO of Taser International Inc, a major supplier of weaponry to the occupation forces in Iraq, will also be speaking.

"Are these people being invited here to teach the Irish authorities how to brutalise people?" Dooley asked. "The organisers of this conference and the owners of the hotel need to get a loud and clear message from people in Ireland: we are not going to sit back and allow these people to peddle weapons that will be used against us in the near future."

Cavan Heritage group, Red Branch Heritage have recently released a heritage report on important archeological sites in a catchment area located in a central area of County Cavan. Cavan County Manager Mr. Jack Keyes received the first copy on Weds 22nd September.

John O’Reilly, chairman of the group, stated that the fifteen-page document has been released in a determined effort to bring forward the important issue of the protection, or lack thereof, being given to archaeological sites in the greater Denn area. The report was compiled by the group over a number of weeks and specifically targeted four sites for special attention. Among these is the Black Pig’s Dyke linear earthworks at Ardkill More Mountain, Carrickaboy - a monument believed to be up to two thousand years old, which has already being damaged by an adjoining quarry. Recently removal of topsoil by the quarry company from a newly acquired area of the mountain has taken place without planning approval from Cavan County Council. According to the report considerable damage has already being caused to the local landscape.

In its summing up the report states: “the quarry site has now become a real eyesore and this extension must not be allowed to continue and the area of this latest unauthorised work should be re-landscaped with soil in order to bring about a renewal of growth. It is time to have a serious look at the long-term future of quarrying at Ardkill More. It is quite clear this site is totally unsuitable for quarrying with regard to its elevated location and the fact that an important archeological site lies in its immediate vicinity. The quarry owners might be encouraged to consider sourcing a more suitable quarry site and phasing out their operations at Ardkill More”

Red Branch Heritage secretary Susan Hayes stated that a winding down of the quarrying operation was the only solution to the problems at Ardkill Mountain. While admitting this would cause problems for the company involved in the short term, Miss Hayes said it was the only solution that would guarantee the lasting protection of this national monument.

“How could any surveyor view the landscape even as it stands today and say the quarry was not interfering with the character of the local landscape - it’s a total disaster even as things stand and we still haven’t even received a guarantee that the surviving stretch of earthworks will not suffer a similar fate to the two hundred yards destroyed in the past.”