Government's environmental record abysmal, says Green MEP

The Taoiseach and his Government Ministers should be "ashamed to show their faces" at next week's Earth summit given their "abysmal" record on the environment, Green Party MEP Ms Patricia McKenna said yesterday.

Successive governments had "failed completely" to live up to commitments made at the last summit in Rio in 1992, she said.

"We've now witnessed a spiralling decade of neglect from Irish officialdom, which has resulted in pollution of our air, seas and waters, and the creation of a virtual Irish 'wasteland', thanks to Government failure to implement proper, environmentally sound waste policies."

According to Ms McKenna the introduction of local authority charges for people objecting to developments, and the recent proposal to take powers away from local authorities on waste management "fly in the face" of Government commitments under Rio's Agenda 21.

She also condemned the Government's recent decision to cut its aid budget. Contrasting the decision with the its funding of the Monument of Light on Dublin's O'Connell Street, she said: "That spike is just stabbing the poor of the world in the back."

In addition, she accused the Government of supporting business enterprises which were exploiting developing countries.

Among the initiatives being sought by the Greens ahead of the Earth summit are an increase in overseas development aid, a reduction in tariffs for developing countries, reform of the World Trade Organisation and the implementation of plans on clean drinking water and alternative energy.

Green Party TD Mr John Gormley said of the summit: "We are not hopeful of a successful outcome.

"Already the signs are that it will get bogged down in wrangling over technicalities, with each bloc trying as best it can to escape its environmental commitments."

He urged the Government to rethink its policies and "even at this eleventh hour" not to go down "the incineration route" on waste management.

Mr Gormley said the Government's poor environmental record resulted from an "IBEC approach" to policy. In a further reference to the business lobby group, he said: "IBEC is driving the waste agenda. They want to see incinerators there because it lets industry off the hook."

IBEC had resisted the imposition of a carbon tax, he said. The Government was facing a bill of €1 billion for non-compliance with emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol yet it was "primarily the fault of industry" that such targets were not being met.

Defending IBEC earlier yesterday, Mr Donal Buckley, head of the group's environmental unit, said progress had been made on the implementation of environmental policy. He claimed packaging recovery rates, at "well over 50 per cent", were "among the best in Europe".

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, is due to fly to Johannesburg on Monday week for the final days of the summit. The Minister for Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen, and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, are also to attend.

Ms McKenna and Mr Gormley said they too would be travelling to Johannesburg, in their case to liaise with fellow Greens and show solidarity with those campaigning for sustainable development.