A balance between the environment and economic growth are "a key element" of the new National Development Plan (NDP), Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said today.
Publishing a progress report on Ireland's environmental sustainability over the course of the last NDP, Mr Roche insisted progress was being made "on many fronts".
The report also sets out some of the environmental challenges facing the country over the seven years of the next plan from 2007-2013.
"The environment and economic growth are no longer in opposition to each other," Mr Roche said. "Global concerns and debate have sharpened our consciousness about the need to strike this balance. That balance is a key element of the new NDP."
The Minister said key areas where progress had been made included in recycling, where Ireland has reached an overall recycling rate of 35 per cent, the target set down for 2013.
Ireland has already exceeded the 2013 target of 85 per cent recycling of construction and demolition waste, he said.
Mr Roche said the 2008 target for collection of electrical waste has also been exceeded, more than two years ahead of schedule. There had also been progress on water quality, with some 90 per cent of wastewater discharges in compliance with an EU treatment directive, compared to 20 per cent a decade ago.
In addition, Mr Roche said Ireland had capped CO 2emissions from the largest industrial producers. "This accounts for half of our overall emissions.
"Our environmental progress has been benchmarked internationally. The Environmental Performance Index . . . presented to the 2006 Davos World Economic Forum placed Ireland 10th out of 133 countries worldwide for environmental policies and 7th in the EU," Mr Roche said in a statement.
However, he acknowledged the "significant challenges" ahead.
"That is why the environment is one of the major "horizontal" elements in the NDP, running across and integrating other functional policy areas, the Minister said.
Mr Roche said €25 billion will be invested in programmes "yielding a direct environmental dividend, including public transport, sustainable energy, water service infrastructure, waste infrastructure and climate change".