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EU warns Ireland on waste-water directive

The European Commission has warned that it may refer Ireland to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) with a request to impose financial penalties.

It has sent a letter formal notice to Ireland over failure to comply with a 2019 CJEU judgment on the collection and treatment of urban waste water.

In that ruling, the court found that Ireland had not complied with a directive on the treatment of urban waste water.

The directive requires that urban waste water be collected and treated before discharge into the environment, and obliges towns and cities to put in place the necessary infrastructure to comply with the rules.

The deadline for compliance with the directive was 31 December 2005.

Progress

The CJEU ruling found that Ireland had breached the directive’s requirements in 28 towns or cities.

“Whilst Ireland has made progress in remedying some of the breaches – for instance, with the construction of the Shanbally treatment plant – compliance has still not been achieved for 16 agglomerations covered by the judgment,” the commission said.

Ireland now has two months to respond to the issues raised by the commission.