IRISH companies remain "defensive" about the need to take the environment seriously. It would only lead to more regulations being imposed on them as well as possible court actions and "bad publicity all round", industrialists were told yesterday.

Dr Padraic Larkin, licensing manager of the Environmental Protection Agency, said it was developing a relationship based on trust with companies which took a "pro active" view of their environmental responsibilities and realised that good environmental management was also good for business.

He was speaking at a seminar to introduce an environmental training programme for Irish industry.

It is a novel partnership involving IBEC, the EPA, An Taisce and the Clean Technology Centre at Cork Regional Technical College.

It is being supported by the European Commission under the LIFE programme.

Training is due to start next autumn, aided by a £300,000 grant from the European Commission.

Previously, individual "demonstration" projects were funded under the LIFE programme, but on this occasion it was decided that involving more companies would bring wider benefits.

Dr Larkin said the EPA's aim was to promote and implement the best practicable standards of environmental protection in Ireland.

In its control functions, it was increasingly using environmental audits to assess the performance of companies seeking integrated pollution control (IPC) licences.

Between 800 and 1,000 Irish companies fall within the orbit of IPC licensing, which would ultimately cover 61 categories of activity.

Dr Larkin said 27 of these categories, applying to established industries, had been brought in by ministerial order, some with effect from March and the rest from July.

Dr Mary Kelly, IBEC's environment executive, said 35 companies from a broad spectrum of Irish industry would be selected for participation in the training programme.

Companies represented at yesterday's seminar included Pitney Bowes, Irish Distillers, Premier Dairies, Smurfit, Greencore and Maxol.

"Environmental issues won't go away and Irish companies will need to take this on board if they are to stay competitive," she said.

"Training of staff in environmental management will be crucial and we hope that this training course will give participating companies an edge.

Ms Marian Byron, of IBEC, said the training programme aimed to make companies "clean, green and lean" by outlining the savings that could be made from energy conservation and waste reduction.

This would benefit the companies and the environment, so "everyone wins", she added.

Ms Margaret Sweeney, of An Taisce, said concerns about the food industry underlined the need to maintain the highest standards if the confidence of consumers at home and abroad was to be retained.

An Taisce, once seen as "overly adversarial", was now committed to partnership, she added.