Access to information on the environment

This right comes from Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament, and the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 133 of 2007).

Categories of information you can access

The directive covers information held in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form. There are 6 categories of information within this directive:

1. The state of the elements of the environment, e.g. air, water, soil, land, landscape, biological diversity.
2. Factors affecting, or likely to affect, the elements of the environment, e.g. energy, noise, radiation, waste, other releases into the environment.
3. Measures designed to protect the elements of the environment, e.g. policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements.
4. Reports on the implementation of environmental legislation.
5. Analyses and assumptions used within the framework of measures designed to protect the environment.
6. The state of human health and safety, the food chain, cultural sites and built structures in as much as they may be affected by the elements of the environment.

Please note: Article 4(1) provides that the A.I.E. Regulations do not apply to environmental information that is required to be made available under any other legislation, for inspection or otherwise, to the public.

How to request environmental information

Submit your request in writing or electronic form and state that the application is being made under the A.I.E. Regulations 2007 and send it to the address below. Please provide contact details and state, in terms as specific as possible, the environmental information required and specify the form and manner of access desired.

Clare County Council will reply to you within one month of receiving your application.

Will it cost me anything?

The AIE Regulations allows a public authority to charge a reasonable fee for the cost of supplying the environmental information. In accordance with Circular AIE/2/2017, a public authority may charge for information supplied under the regulations. Charges may include not only postal and photocopying charges, but also costs attributable to the time spent by staff on answering an individual request for information. This includes the time spent on searching for the information and putting it in the form required.

List of Fees

• €20 per hour for costs attributable to the time spent by staff on answering an individual request for information, time spent on searching for the information and putting it in the form required.
• €0.04 per page for copying records.

Limited means

If you are advised of a charge and it is beyond your means, it is open to you to request that we reduce or waive the fee. If you wish to pursue this option, we will require some evidence that your means are limited, for example, evidence that you hold a current medical card or are in receipt of a social welfare benefit. 

Right of appeal

If a request is refused wholly or partially, or otherwise not dealt with properly, internal review may be sought not later than one month after the date of notification of the original decision. To request an internal review, write to the council at the address below.

There is a further right of appeal to the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information, 18 Lower Lesson St, Dublin 2.