S.I. No. 615/2014 - European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.


Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 6th January, 2015.

I, ALAN KELLY, Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003, hereby make the following regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.

2. These Regulations, the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 and the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2011 may be cited together as the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 to 2014 and should be construed together as one.

Interpretation

3. In these Regulations, “Regulations of 2007” refers to the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007, ( S.I. No. 133 of 2007 ).

“Regulations of 2011” refers to the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2011, ( S.I. No. 662 of 2011 ).

Amendment of Article 15 of the Regulations of 2007, as amended by Article 8 of the Regulations of 2011

4. (a) The Regulations of 2007, as amended by the Regulations of 2011 are amended by the substitution of the following for article 15(3):

“Subject to sub-article (4), a fee of €50 shall be charged for making an appeal to the Commissioner under article 12.”

(b) The substitution of the following for article 15(4):

“In respect of an appeal pursuant to article 12 by—

(a) a holder of a medical card,

(b) a dependant of a holder of a medical card, or

(c) a person referred to in article 12(3)(b),

the fee charged shall be €15.”

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GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government,

19 December 2014.

ALAN KELLY,

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The principal purpose of these Regulations is to amend the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 to 2011 for the purpose of ensuring that Ireland complies with the provisions of Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information, in particular the requirement that access to a review procedure is not prohibitively expensive.