Environmental problems are intensifying with economic growth and could gravely undermine Ireland's "tiger economy", according to an Environmental Protection Agency report.
"The Environment in Focus" report, which identifies key "indicators" of strain on the Irish environment, suggests increasing road traffic, waste production, river pollution and emissions of "greenhouse" gases are the biggest environmental challenges facing the State.
It also provides a view of current environmental trends. Despite some positive moves, the indicators "depict an environment under increasing threat", said EPA director Dr Padraic Larkin. "This document covers the principal stresses and strains on the environment, their impact on society and the effects of policy measures."
The environmental group Voice said the report "must be taken as a final wake-up call to the Government, indicating the very basis on which the economy depends for success will no longer exist if fundamental and radical action is not taken".
The EPA has identified 50 parameters which can be easily evaluated by policy-makers to obtain an accurate indication of the health of the Irish environment (ranging from transport patterns to noise levels to the fauna under threat). The agency is to report on the indicators regularly, while the document provides a benchmark for progress towards sustainable development.
The report's editor, senior scientific officer Mr Micheal Lehane, said there was an international trend towards using environmental indicators to inform policy. The Irish data would in time feed into an international process of identifying key statistics summarising the state of the environment and the impact of human activities.
Despite indications of growing environmental pressure, some successes cited by the report include:
sales of unleaded petrol reached 89 per cent of petrol sales by the first quarter of 1999;
urban waste water is being subjected to more extensive treatment to reduce pollution;
recycling rates for packaging of household and commercial waste are rising;
quality of Irish bathing water has remained high, with at least 95 per cent attaining minimum EU standards each year;
a more proactive approach to litter management is evident, with a dramatic increase in on-the-spot fines and prosecutions.
The need for environmental policy based on sound information was underlined by the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Dan Wallace, after the report's publication yesterday.
"But policy works best when the public are better informed. Good information can help to change behaviour and influence in a positive way the impact on the environment on our modern lifestyles."
He said the rate of increase in environmental pressure was not coinciding with the economic growth rate in some cases. This was a positive indication "some eco-efficiencies" were being achieved.
Ms Iva Pocock, of Voice, said the four key areas of concern reflected a lack of political response to each threat. "Ireland has shied away from accepting responsibility for its greenhouse gas emissions and now even stands to renege on its pathetic commitments made at Kyoto.
"Despite warnings since the 1970s that our freshwater was declining in quality, nutrient management planning is still not compulsory and numerous small towns and villages continue to discharge raw sewage into rivers and lakes."
Ireland's public transport system was the most under-subsidised public system in the EU when private car ownership and congestion had never been higher, while there was no action plan on acute waste management problems.
Green Party environment spokeswoman Ms Mary White, said the findings reflected "gross complacency" by the Government and were "a damning indictment of infrastructural planning".
