Madam, - Ireland's birds are chirping with joy this early summer season. Could it possibly have anything to do with the recent environmental spending proposals contained in the National Development Plan 2007-2013? The Irish environment (their home) is about to receive €25 billion over the next seven years - this is big news indeed for the birds!
The NDP proposes to invest €13 billion of this money in public transport which, it is argued, will facilitate a switch from private cars to public transport, and thus benefit the environment. But can such piecemeal application of resources to public transport initiatives remove or ease gridlock from our roads? It cannot and will not.
What is required is an integrated national public transport system (planned with foresight), in order to bring about an easier transfer from cars to public transport.
Other impetuous proposals contained in the plan do little, if anything, for the environment. For example, the Government plans to spend €270 million on "environmental" credits. How will the purchase of carbon credits improve our environmental wealth or quality? Monetary compensation, in the form of carbon credits or financial penalties, does not go to those most affected by environmental damage nor can it correct for such damage.
A case in point is the current water crisis in Galway. If the local authority in Galway is fined by the EU for water contamination, the proceeds of the financial penalty will not go to Galway residents as recompense, nor will it be "pumped back" to improve Galway's water quality.
The overriding objective for investment under this NDP is to support and maintain economic growth. The document itself states: "The investment envisaged under this new NDP is therefore necessary to generate and maintain economic growth."
This deliberate policy of "sustaining" annual GDP growth rates of 4 to 4.5 per cent, without due regard to its composition or effects on the environment or society, has given a new meaning to the term "sustainability"! (Suffice to say that the term was used 73 times in the document and with related adjectives, verbs and nouns, 258 times). The growth rates as outlined in the publication cannot be achieved without significant and irreversible environmental cost and degradation.
A balance needs to be struck quickly. Sustainable economic growth and progress can be achieved only by protecting our natural environment - not by attempting to "heal" it - and by providing a quality of life for all our people.
In short, the proposed National Development Plan takes little or no account of the compromises necessary between economic, social and environmental factors for real, sustainable progress to occur. Such delicate interconnectivity requires somewhat more than piecemeal environmental fire-fighting. - Yours, etc,
HENRY JOYCE, MARCELLA O'SHEA, Lecturers in Economics, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone.