Manchester University Press The Implementation of Environmental Policy in Ireland: Lessons from Translating Eu Directives into Action

This book explores Ireland’s engagement with and implementation of EU environmental policy in three cases – waste management, water policy reform, and biodiversity. Historically, Ireland has had a weak background in environmental governance, and has struggled to apply and enforce EU environmental policy; consequently Ireland has been subjected to several infringement proceedings and critical rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Connaughton details how efforts to comply with these measures have been a source of significant pressure on Ireland’s institutional framework, and how this has prompted them to learn and adapt their environmental governance, by exploring the response of the Irish political-administrative system to the three directives at the core of the EU’s environment legislation. It highlights the difficulties between maintaining economic competitiveness and pursuing sustainability, as well as conflicts between practices of traditional land management and the threats to conservation this may bring. By outlining the historical and contemporary challenges of Ireland’s experience, and by tracing and analysing the implementation of these core EU directives, The implementation of environmental policy in Ireland offers scholars and practitioners a deeper insight into how EU environmental directives are translated into action, and what may prohibit or facilitate their implementation. Combined with insights from Europeanisation literature, this analysis, based upon a theoretical framework, demonstrates how environmental governance is continuing to develop in the Irish state.