LAST YEAR will be seen as a watershed for climate change in Ireland, reflected in a significant increase in activity by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to its annual report which was published yesterday.
However, the agency's director general, Mary Kelly, said that notwithstanding the increased activity, Ireland will still find it very difficult to meet the target of a 20 per cent reduction of current greenhouse emissions by 2020.
"The targets for 2020 are so onerous that we are going to invest in research in all kinds of ways to come up with means in which we can meet the targets.
"Between 1990 to 2006, emissions jumped from 55 million tonnes to 70 million tonnes. We need to get down to 56 million tonnes. Transport [emissions] are rising very clearly and continue to rise. Agriculture is also a very high percentage though it is falling or stable," she said.
Dr Kelly was speaking at a meeting of the Oireachtas committee on the environment which coincided with the publication of the report.
The EPA budget increased by 43 per cent last year to €71 million and the agency now has 340 staff.
It made 121 decisions on licences including that for the Shell gas refinery plant at Ballinaboy, Co Mayo.
It also held oral hearings for the proposed landfill site in Fingal and the controversial incinerator for Poolbeg in Dublin.
The agency confirmed yesterday that there is no other site which has been identified as having as serious a legacy problem as the former Irish Steel/Ispat site in Haulbowline, Co Cork.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said that people were shocked to discover the toxic nature of materials at the Cork site and asked were there others with the same problems.
EPA director of environmental enforcement Dara Lynott said there was no other site equivalent to it.
Mr Lynott referred to an EPA project on abandoned mines that had identified over 100 old mines, where analysis had been carried out. He said that the level of remediation for each of the 100 sites would be assessed and the findings published by the end of the year.
The agency also assumed responsibility for overseeing the supply of drinking water last year.
"It coincided with the outbreak of cryptosporidium in Galway," said Dr Kelly.
"The EPA used its new power to bring about a resolution to the problem in the shortest possible time frame." The report states that over 300 public water supplies are not considered to be sufficiently secure for the continuous provision of clean drinking water.
"Tackling this problem will be a priority issue for the EPA in 2008," it states.
Mr Lynott also disclosed that 57 per cent of groundwater sampling locations were contaminated by faecal coliforms and 25 per cent exceeded the guideline values for nitrates in 2007. He said he expected that situation to improve.
The report highlights some new initiative like the real-time availability of information on air quality and a forthcoming map of environmental noise levels (some of the highest levels are experienced near motorways).
It also shows that the waste electronic and electrical equipment scheme (WEEE) where people return appliances to retailers has been very successful. "We return 7.4kg per capita compared to an average of 4kg in Europe. It is well-designed and well-run," said Dr Kelly.
Committee chairman Seán Fleming criticised the lack of a national waste authority. "All the local authorities drew up regional plans for waste that were nonsense then and are still nonsense."
