Mica redress campaigners to address EU Committee

Photograph: Mica redress campaigners Ann Owens and Eileen Doherty

Mica redress campaigners from Donegal have been given the chance to tell the story of mica in the county to MEPs in Brussels.

A delegation from the county will address the European Committee on Petitions next month.

Speaking to Donegal Now, longtime mica campaigner Eileen Doherty said the presentation would take place on December 1.

Any citizen of the EU, or resident in a member state, may, individually or in association with others, submit a petition to the European Parliament on a subject which comes within the European Union’s fields of activity and which affects them directly. A petition may take the form of a complaint or a request and may relate to issues of public or private interest.

The committee is chaired by Dolors Montserrat, a member of the European People's Party group.

“The delegation travelling to Brussels is a combination of people from the Mica Action Group and other campaigners,” she said.

“Just to clarify, myself, Ann Owens and Paddy Diver are not members of the Mica Action Group.

“As campaigners, we have sought redress from the Irish Government over the years because of its lack of adherence to legislation that existed in Ireland, as a consequence, we got, let's call it, the 90 / 10 scheme.

“There is a 1949 Statute governing the incorporation of mica into and concrete products. As far back as 1949, the Irish Government said that there should not be any more than 1% mica in any concrete products.

“It was legislation like that which led us to go back to the Government over the years and say, 'There was legislation in place but you did not adhere to the legislation, therefore you have a responsibility to us as citizens to provide us with redress'.

This formed the premise for us pursuing the Irish Government over the years,” said Ms Doherty.

She highlighted the fact there were also EU directives that centred around how concrete blocks were brought into the Irish market.

“As an EU member state, Ireland has a requirement to monitor and to ensure these products are brought into Irish market complying with the EU Directive but the reality was that it did not do this. The Irish Government failed to ensure compliance, even though we have been talking to the Irish Government, directly, since 2014. That's seven years ago.

“We directly presented to the Irish Government the results of the survey we did in 2014 and, even at that time, we were able to provide a huge amount of information. The point is, the Irish Government has been remiss. It has not only failed to adhere to its own legislation. It has also failed to adhere to EU legislation, which is why we have submitted eight petitions to the European Committee on Petitions.

“Usually, the European Committee on Petitions reviews petitions and puts them online to garner as many signatures as possible. Based on that, petitioners normally get an invitation to present their case to the Committee. However, in our case, the Committee has reviewed our petitions and has not even required us to put them online for signatures. We seem to have been fast-tracked for some reason. We are meeting the committee in December, which is brilliant news. We were very surprised this week to learn that.

“I don't know why this has happened. I can only speculate it is because the committee is viewing our petitions as extremely serious. I don't know for definite. In any case, we are very pleased that the EU have taken this seriously and we have been invited so quickly,” said Eileen Doherty.

The delegation representing 20 affected families is also going to meet other MEPS while it is in Brussels.

“We want to meet as many MEPs and officials in Europe and tell them the story of the mica in Donegal,” said Eileen Doherty.

“Our eight petitions reference the directive with which Ireland has not been in compliance. The whole thing has been coordinated by Joe Morgan from Letterkenny, one of the Donegal representatives on the Defective Blocks Working Group.

Initially, Ann [Owens] and I liaised with Luke 'Ming' Flanagan MEP's office. We identified the directive with which Ireland is not complying.

“The petitions talk about why Ireland did not adhere to this legislation. They are an opportunity for each of the families to tell their story, to talk about how mica has impacted their lives, as a consequence of this lack of adherence to legislation.

“On the day there are going to be two presenters, Joe Morgan and either myself or Ann Owens, we are not sure yet. We will synthesise at lot of the submitted petitions and give an overview of the situation and the impact it has had. It is then opened up to questions and the MEPs can ask us questions and we can bring in families represented there and use them as examples.

The families will also have the opportunity to speak, if they so wish. I assume the committee will then go away and review our case and get back to us.”

The Donegal delegation's trip was supported by the office of MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan.

“We met with him earlier in the year and we discussed the issue of what was happening in Donegal. It was he who came back with the European Committee on Petitions as a suggestion. His office has been liaising with us over the course of the summer and up until now,” she said.

“It has helped us to prepare and has given us access to services. We would not even have this invite if it had not been for Luke 'Ming' Flanagan's office. Our delegation is being brought to Brussels by the Left Group. Luke Ming, Mick Wallace and Sinn Féin are the parties bringing us out.

“It is a cross-party trip in that we will be meeting all of the Irish MEPs we can while we are there.”