Ireland is "facing the most severe test yet of its resolve to deal with environmental issues", according to Dr Mary Kelly, the newly appointed director-general of the Environmental Protection Agency. She was speaking in Dublin yesterday on the publication of Environment in Focus 2002, the EPA's latest assessment of progress in dealing with key environmental challenges.
Referring to a 60 per cent growth in waste-generation over the past five years, Dr Kelly said there was now "a greater need than ever for waste-prevention and minimisation" as well as "essential infrastructure".
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, who launched the report, agreed that "resolute measures" were needed to protect the environment and he aimed to provide leadership in this area.
The report "couldn't be more timely" because it set out where Ireland stood on some of the crucial issues in advance of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in Johannesburg next month.
He said Environment in Focus 2002 would provide an authoritative guide for policy-makers concerned with these issues as well as a "user-friendly source" of environmental information for the public.
While welcoming its overall conclusion that Ireland's environment was still generally of a high standard, Mr Cullen conceded it was "under significant pressure" against the backdrop of rapid economic growth.
Better waste-management was a major priority and "big decisions" needed to be made to deliver the "integrated infrastructure" provided for in regional waste-management plans to reduce pressure on landfill.
"I am committed during my term to tackle the various issues head on," Mr Cullen said, to ensure that local authorities discharged their functions and that penalties reflected the scale of environmental damage.
Referring to the 24 per cent growth in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2000, he said meeting the targets set under the Kyoto Protocol was a "core challenge for sustainable development".
Mr Cullen said there was "commitment across Government" to implement the National Climate Change Strategy. He said this was necessary "to tackle the growth in emissions and secure the reductions now needed".
Pointing to the recent reversal in the deterioration of river water quality, he said it was encouraging that improvements had mainly taken place in catchments benefiting from intensive management programmes.
"What can't be measured can't be managed. For that reason, the report makes a major contribution to our capacity to manage - and meet - the environmental and sustainable development challenges we face."
