The EU's top official—Ireland's Catherine Day, Secretary General of the European Commission—has found herself repeatedly embroiled in controversy over the past months, making her position increasingly untenable, says An Taisce.

Today the Aarhus Convention entered into force in Ireland, signifying an important step forward for environmental democracy in this country. The Aarhus Convention upholds the right of every person to have access to information about the environment, the right to participate in decision-making, and the right of access to justice in environmental matters. It sets minimum standards in these areas, and by becoming a party to the Convention, Irish authorities are now legally bound to respect these standards.

After 14 years of campaigning, the final ratification process for the Aarhus Convention has been completed with the deposition of Irish ratification papers at the United Nations in New York yesterday.

Calls for public awareness campaign following Dáil vote for ratification of environmental human rights convention
There have been calls for the government to raise public awareness of rights granted to Irish citizens following the Dáil vote today to allow ratification of the Aarhus Convention.

The Environmental Pillar of social partnership has welcomed the "bold initiative" taken by Minister John Gormley to take the lead on the establishment of a Taskforce to strengthen the implementation of the Aarhus Convention.