OPEN LETTER

FROM:
Stella Coffey

TO:
Minister for Agriculture Food & the Marine
Director of Teagasc
Board of Teagasc

29 August 2012

I demand of the Minister of Agriculture Food & the Marine, the Board of Teagasc, and its Director, to make public undertakings that Teagasc will NOT plant any GM potatoes outdoors at Oak Park until my Aarhus Access to Justice Rights as an EU citizen in Ireland, in challenging the EPA administrative decision of 25 July 2012, have been fully resolved further to my High Court Action of 13-14 August 2012.

My best information is that Teagasc is holding the GM potatoes in pots in a glasshouse while waiting for suitable weather conditions to plant them in the field test-site, thus wholly disregarding my rights and their duties and obligations as an Emanation of the Irish Member State, and to the Aarhus Convention. However, if unbeknownst to me, Teagasc has actually planted the potatoes outdoors, I demand that they be removed immediately and brought back into a suitable contained area until the challenge process is fully resolved.

As an EU citizen I have the protection of the Aarhus Convention, ratified by the EU since 2005, which secures citizens' rights to Access to Justice on Environmental Matters. I have rights to Judicial Protection pursuant to the Treaties of the European Union, and for Sincere Co-operation from every Arm of the Irish Member State.

The Aarhus Convention also provides the Right to Access to Justice that is Not Prohibitively Expensive. Thus I sought the protection and Legal Certainty of the Courts to issue a Court Order being a Not Prohibitively Expensive Order, for the Challenge to the Administrative Decision.

The Irish Member State is obliged to secure and ensure to provide and to judicially protect citizens making such a legal challenge. It failed me on the 13 and 14 August 2012 in the High Court, and 11 further applicants on the 28 August. The eleven individual applications at the High Court yesterday for Not Prohibitively Expensive Orders were: Thomas O'Connor, Richard Auler, Theresa Carter, Derek Banim, David Notley, Enda Kiernan, Michael Hickey, Malcolm Noonan, Gavin Lynch, Danny Forde and no2gm Limited. Thus the Irish Member State has and is denying Access to Justice save for the Ritz rule (everyone on the face of it can enter but only those with very deep pockets can actually get in).

The clock on taking a legal challenge has been ticking since 25 July 2012, people in Ireland have only a few weeks left to make the challenge, and meanwhile our Access to Justice Rights are being denied.

I demand an immediate public declaration now and as a matter of urgency from the Minister for Agriculture Food & the Marine, and from Teagasc Board, and from its Director.

Yours faithfully

Stella Coffey