If there is to be any hope of arresting declining Irish water quality, growing air pollution in cities and poor waste management, radical measures are needed, an Environmental Protection Agency report concludes.
Curbs on car usage in urban areas; phosphorus removal facilities in all waste-water treatment plants discharging into inland waters and restrictions on tourist numbers in sensitive landscapes are among the recommendations in the most extensive evaluation yet undertaken of the Irish environment.
It also advocates restricting intensive farming around highly sensitive lakes and rivers of European significance, notably those in the west, and imposing an excise tax on fertiliser sales. It also calls for a vigorously enforced coastal management strategy, given the unprecedented development close to coastlines - graphically illustrated by satellite imagery.
Ireland's Environment - a Millennium Report, edited by Mr Larry Stapleton, Dr Micheal Lehane and Dr Paul Toner and published yesterday, concludes that the Irish environment is generally good, but it identifies worsening trends. It says these could quickly transform Ireland to one of the more polluted areas of Europe which had been much more heavily industrialised and are coming to terms with stricter EU standards.
The EPA also warns that Ireland's record rate of economic development is accelerating the pressures on its environment. This is coming on top of decades of population growth; urbanisation and intensification of agriculture which had already given rise to significant environmental pressures, manifest in an unrelenting decline of water quality.
The enrichment of rivers and lakes is the most acute form of pollution in the Irish environment, it concludes. With every indication agriculture will continue to intensify, it may not be possible to maintain many waters in their pristine state, even with rigorous controls on farm wastes.
The report is highly critical of both consumer and State attitudes to waste, with high levels of waste a defining characteristic of the Irish "modern consuming society".
There is "little indication of a widespread attempt, either at public or private level, to reduce the amounts of waste generated", the report says. al (FADA ON THE 'A') Lehane and Dr Paul Toner.
This is despite tightening EU directives which in the short term will force an end to dependence on landfill as the main disposal method. Other disposal options including incineration have to be considered, notwithstanding the extent of public opposition to incinerators, which it predicts "will be difficult to overcome".
Efforts to curtail increases in greenhouse gases "have been insignificant to date", it finds. Accordingly, a greenhouse gas abatement strategy to be announced by the Government has no choice but to inflict pain across all sectors of the economy, most likely in the form of an emissions tax. It confirms that "business as usual" will see Irish emissions under the Kyoto Protocol reaching more than twice 1990 levels by 2012 when only a 13 per cent increase is permitted.
The EPA notes there has been "very limited development of renewable energy resources", such as wind power, "and even this has met with [some] negative public reaction". It does not suggest an easy passage for largescale installation of wind farms which may be necessary in the future.
The report notes that Ireland has one of the higher emissions of greenhouse gases in Europe per capita, due in part to limited capacity for hydropower and the absence of nuclear power, though high cattle numbers account for a third of emissions. Electricity generation is almost totally dependent on fossil fuels (placing a question mark over ESB installations, notably coal-burning Money point power station). The EPA has charted the extent of overgrazing by sheep in western uplands fuelled by EU supports; loss of natural peat lands, a steady decline in flora and fauna; and State failures to designate adequately for protection of important species and landscapes.
Efforts at protecting biodiversity, it notes, are being hampered by lack of basic research. More imaginative forestry management is required to support greater biological and landscape diversity.
