Madam, - I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the disingenuousness of the Taoiseach's reply to Frank McDonald's critique of the Government's environmental record (Opinion & Analysis, March 23rd).
Bertie Ahern clearly expects a respectful round of applause for providing the citizens of Ireland with clean air and water, as required by EU law. He neglects to mention that the Government was served with its final legal notice by the European Court of Justice last week over its failure to ensure that all drinking water supplies are free of the potentially fatal bacteria e.coli.
Indeed, I am surprised the Taoiseach can keep a straight face when he writes: "Our commitment to the climate change agenda does not rely on rhetoric." So far, the Government's most specific commitment to tackling the biggest global crisis we may ever face has been €270m put aside for buying carbon credits abroad.
This is the extent of the brief "Climate Change Sub-Programme" in the National Development Plan. Ireland has the highest per capita CO2 emissions in the EU, and the fifth highest in the world. No amount of carbon credits can disguise domestic inaction.
As for what Fianna Fáil has "delivered", most of it has yet to materialise. Energy conservation standards are still so low that houses are allowed to be built using hollow blocks.
Why didn't the promised 40 per cent increase in standards happen in 1997, or at any other point over the past 10 years when half-a-million homes were being built? Is it because that would have gone down badly in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway races?
Reform of Vehicle Registration Tax to encourage the purchase of less-polluting cars has been promised by the Government for years. Why wait until after a general election to announce your plans? Where is the metro, promised for 2007? Or the Greater Dublin Land Use and Transport Authority?
The truth is that there is nothing Fianna Fáil does better than empty rhetoric. That is why the European Environment Agency uses Dublin as a "worst case" example of developer-led urban sprawl.
Bertie Ahern says he is proud of Fianna Fáil's environmental record over the past ten years. He should be ashamed of himself. - Yours, etc,
EAMON GILMORE TD, Labour Party Spokesperson on the Environment, Leinster House, Dublin 2.