Ireland risks being tagged as "the dirty man of Europe" because of its ever-expanding litany of environmental problems, according to Prof Frank Convery of UCD.
Prof Convery, director of the college's Environmental Institute, said such a perception would be "hugely damaging to our tourist and food industries, and our attractiveness as a place to work and live".
He was speaking yesterday at the launch of the programme for a conference in September addressing environmental challenges facing Ireland today, in the run-up to the 10th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
He said the quality of the State's drinking water was "significantly below mandated standards", while 72,000 tonnes of toxic waste "goes missing" every year and the Republic was also "at the bottom of the European league in curbing greenhouse gas emissions".
Prof Convery also warned that Ireland could face "punitive financial penalties" if its emissions of the gases blamed for causing climate change were to increase by 38 per cent on their 1990 levels by 2010 - or three times the agreed target figure.
Playwright Frank McGuinness, who also spoke at the launch in the Cuvilinear Range of the National Botanic Gardens, said Ireland's scientific community had failed to bring to bear the same level of self-criticism to its work as the artistic community.
While acknowledging the serious nature of global environmental issues, he complained that the green setting of his native Buncrana, in Co Donegal, was being "wrecked" by unrestricted development.
More information on the five day conference, entitled "Achievement and Challenge", may be obtained by telephoning the UCD Environmental Institute at (01) 269-7988 or at the website www.environmental economics.net.
