PROPOSALS by the Progressive Democrats to cut 25,000 public sector jobs could result in the loss of 11,000 jobs in local authorities, according to the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin.
He was speaking at a press conference on Labour's environment policy at which the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, proposed that four million broadleaf trees should be planted in the Republic as a millennium project.
Attacking the PDs' public sector jobs cut plan, Mr Howlin challenged the party leader, Ms Mary Harney, to say that her "hit list" would not include An Bord Pleanala, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fire Safety Council and the new Dublin Docklands Development Authority.
"Even though none of these agencies might fit into the PD view of the world, they are all essential. The PD approach to privatisation, if it was implemented in any of these areas, or in relation to local authority services, would cause untold damage to the environment."
Mr Howl in accused the PDs of "paying lipservice" to the environment because of their "casual and cavalier approach" to the development of services. Their plan for the "wholesale sacking of workers" in the public sector was "totally unacceptable", he declared.
The current period of economic growth was the "right time - the essential time - to commit ourselves to ensuring that our environment grows and develops at the same time", he said, adding that lack of vigilance in this area would lead to environmental damage.
Mr Howlin said the Labour Party had an "unequalled record in standing up for the rights of local communities in the face of unjustified rezoning and bad planning", and he himself had intervened to halt "maverick" land rezoning in and around the towns of north Kildare.
One of the key pledges in the party's election manifesto is to hold a national convention on planning and development - along the lines of the convention on educational policy held by the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach in order to achieve a broad consensus.
Mr Howlin said one of the principal aims of the planning convention would be to ensure balanced regional development through the identification of "growth centres" to take some of the pressure off the Dublin area. It would also lead to a new Planning Act.
On roads, he said Labour was committed to the development of the four main strategic road corridors linking the principal centres of economic development, as well as to ensuring that rural communities would "never be cut off again" by poorly maintained minor roads.
Referring to the threat posed to Ireland by the British nuclear industry, the Minister said he looked forward to working with the new Labour government in London in dealing with this "taboo subject", which would require the decommissioning of ageing nuclear power stations.
Plans by UK Nirex for an underground nuclear dump near Sellafield had been abandoned "largely due to pressure from the Irish Government", as a result of the work done by Mr Emmet Stagg, Minister of State for Energy. Labour would continue to press Britain on the Sellafield issue.
The Tanaiste said his proposal to engage communities throughout Ireland in planting four million broadleaved trees for the millennium was motivated by a desire to "leave things better than they were", even though he himself would not live to see these trees in their full glory.
