Minister for the Environment Dick Roche will tell his European counterparts in Brussels today that a recent EU Environment Agency report was unfair, inaccurate and biased against Ireland.
Speaking at an Oireachtas Environment Committee meeting yesterday, Mr Roche said the EU Environment Agency report "had made headlines" about Ireland's poor position in a ranking of European states, but the agency had "not told the full story".
Mr Roche said about 250 separate indicators on environmental performance had been assessed by the agency. This had been whittled down to fewer than 40 for comparative purposes and then further reduced to a comparative sample of just nine. This he said had "skewed" the report's findings against Ireland and he said he was disappointed that the agency, in releasing its findings, had not made a more comprehensive summary widely available.
Mr Roche said he intended to raise the issue with the director of the agency whom he is scheduled to meet, as well as other EU environment ministers, today.
While there had been "sensationalist headlines", Mr Roche said careful reading of the report would show the EU was quite pleased with Ireland's performance.
This particularly related to the Republic's sourcing of energy from renewable sources, although Mr Roche agreed with Ciarán Cuffe of the Green party that "progress always looks good if you start at zero".
