Latest news with #AccesstoInformationontheEnvironment
Irish Independent
19-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Dublin Port Company paid city council €1.7m in vacant site levy on land valued at €4m
The property, which was valued at €4m in 2019, was added to the vacant site register of Dublin City Council in 2018. The city council looked for payments of €280,000 for each year that the land remained vacant. Dublin Port Company appealed that decision but were unsuccessful. The company has since paid a total of €1.68m to the council and said they were now hoping to dispose of the site as it was remote from the port and not of core use. Dublin Port Company said they had at one stage been in discussions with the Land Development Agency about using it for residential use. However, plans for its sale fell through when the zoning of the site – which is next to the Dublin Port Tunnel control building – was changed. In discussions with Dublin City Council last year, the port company asked if the money paid could be used for a greenway project nearby. They suggested it be allocated to the Liffey Tolka Project, which will create a 'new boulevard' between the estuary of the Tolka River and the Liffey. A letter to the council said: 'The project will mitigate against the existing harsh landscape of East Wall Road and create a safe pedestrian and cycle route away from the main traffic movements.' They said it would also provide a route for communications and power cabling, as well as connecting two already existing cycleways. A letter said: 'Dublin Port Company will be ceding several metres of its frontage to this greenway. This project will have significant community gain, and it will be a project that will positively impact on all users of the East Wall Road.' However, Dublin City Council said they could give no assurances on how the funds would be used and were currently developing a policy on what to do with the vacant site levy. ADVERTISEMENT The council said they would be open to discussions on the Liffey Tolka Project – but that it would have to be the subject of a legal agreement. The documents were released following a request under the Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) Regulations. Being remote from the port, the site is not core to port use Dublin Port Company had originally argued that the correspondence was not 'environmental information', but following an appeal they were told to release the records by the Commissioner for Environmental Information. A statement from the Dublin Port Company said: '[We were] in discussions with the Land Development Agency about the Polefield site near the Port Tunnel between 2019 and 2022 regarding its potential redevelopment for residential use. 'However, due to a change in the zoning, the sale could no longer proceed. The port challenged the Vacant Site Levy decision in relation to the site and the decision was upheld on appeal. 'The port subsequently made a payment of €1.68m to Dublin City Council in 2024. Being remote from the port, the site is not core to port use, and DPC is open to disposal of it.'
Agriland
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Agriland
70% of all appeals to Environmental Commissioner in 2024 were on forestry
The Commissioner for Environmental Information today (Thursday, May 8) disclosed that 70% of appeals made to his office in 2024 related to requests for environmental information on forestry. Ger Deering, the Commissioner for Environmental Information, said that last year, two public bodies – the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and Coillte – together received over 1,000 requests under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) regulations for information related to forestry. The requests for forestry information included requests for monitoring records, license inspections, and harvesting information. According to the commissioner, the purpose of AIE regulations is to 'enable members of the public to have timely and easy access to environmental information' held by government bodies. The 2024 annual review published by the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information today shows that it received 313 appeals in 2024, completed 286 appeals and had 424 appeals on hand at the end of the year. It also issued 168 formal decisions. Environmental Commissioner The Environmental Commissioner said that demand for forestry information had increased in recent years and that DAFM Coillte, and all public bodies, should consider all options which would allow for the proactive dissemination of frequently requested material and avoid the need for an AIE requests. The commissioner also highlighted today the number of decisions of public bodies he has had to overturn. But there was some improvement in 2024 – of the 168 appeals that went to a binding decision in 2024, the commissioner overturned the public body's decision in 66% of cases down on the 2023 figure of 92%. Some of the decisions that are highlighted in the 2024 annual review include the release of chemical information relating to Dublin Airport Authority and the release of forestry licence information held by Coillte. Coillte According to the Environmental Commissioner Coillte decided to refuse access to information sought under the AIE regulations relating to certain forestry felling licences granted to Coillte. On October 10, 2022, an application was made to request access to unredacted 'updated' Appropriate Assessment Determination (AAD) documents associated with nine individual felling licenses granted to Coillte and in respect of which Coillte had been notified by the Forest Service, over the period June – July 2022, of a new Hen Harrier nesting site which overlaps with the licenced area. Coillte refused access to the information because it said it highly confidential and that it only received the information from the Forestry Service for operational reasons. However the commissioner directed that access be given to the information. He noted that related information and Felling Licence Application Maps had already been provided to the requester including through a separate AIE request to Coillte. The commissioner also said that the information that was the subject of the request did not contain any additional information that could narrow down the location of the nesting sites. Deering said today: 'Proactive dissemination of information, without the need for an AIE request, has significant benefits for both the public and public bodies. 'It significantly reduces the administration required by public bodies to respond to AIE requests, while also allowing those who want to participate in environmental decision-making to do so easily and in an informed manner.'
