Avril Doyle
Ceist:3 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment the position Ireland adopted in recent discussions by the Council of Ministers on a Community Eco-auditing scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - ECO Auditing Scheme.
Ireland participated in the unanimous adoption of the Eco Audit Regulation at this month's EC Environment Council and actively supported the proposal throughout its negotiation.
Will the Minister support a voluntary or a compulsory eco-audit scheme? Does the Minister see a time lag before there can be any compulsion in relation to environmental audits in general? Are we concerned about competitiveness if all our markets do not move together in establishing a compulsory environment auditing scheme? Does the Minister feel that it is in the interests of businesses here to adopt fairly quickly the principles involved in this?
Eco-auditing is a management tool which integrates environmental considerations into the management process. There is a lot of momentum behind this in the Community at present. It is vitally important that we have regulations which give us the capacity to judge objectively companies that are using this as a marketing arm. I support a voluntary system. It would not be possible to move to mandatory systems immediately. We need to put in place the criteria to be met and systems to verify findings. That is a little bit down the road, but we want to start the process of letting companies know that there will be a system which will judge objectively on proper criteria.
Would the Minister consider that the State and semi-State sectors should give a lead to the private sector in accepting the principle of environmental audits? This was part of the concept in the fifth action programme. Ireland could lead in this area with our State and semi-State sectors. Will the Minister seriously consider that? There are some difficulties in the private sector, particularly for older companies but we should flag the way with our State and semi-State sectors. In view of the fact that eco-auditing will be introduced by way of regulation, will there be an opportunity to debate it in this House, as it will not need to be enacted specifically in law but it will be imposed from Europe? Will the Minister give an assurance that all views on this can be properly debated in this House at the appropriate time? That is important.
I could not agree more. Very often the relationship between this House and developments at European Community level is not as transparent as it should be. This is a matter for the Whips. Consideration was given to using Fridays to debate not alone this proposal but much wider and bigger questions related to our involvement in the Community.
With regard to the first part of the Deputy's question I would not differentiate between semi-State companies and private companies as to how they should respond. I would like the agency to encompass a combination of the strengths already in the national standards authority and in business and commerce generally. We are targeting the country as a whole and getting the response from wherever it can come immediately, as distinct from approaching sectors, but I am open to suggestion on these matters.
I should like the Minister to consider giving a lead in the State and semi-State sector because the private sector is a little nervous. This is a new area and they are afraid that these ecoaudits, if published, may be incriminating or may be used in evidence against them if something goes wrong environmentally. Will the Minister agree that the financial institutions will be pressurising companies and big business, particularly in relation to larger loan applications, to produce environmental audits, especially if land is being offered as collateral for a loan, with "the polluter pays" principle firmly established? The financial institutions are nervous of taking on collateral that may cost them more than the loan in the long run, if things go wrong. Will the Minister be a little bit more vigorous in his approach to environmental auditing and lead the way in the State and semi-State sector in order to encourage the private sector, particularly as the financial institutions and insurance companies will be pushing for environmental audits in the future to back up business proposals generally?
We are having quite an extension of the subject matter involved.
I indicated that the registration process should be integrated between the strengths in the State sector and the private sector.
That is opting out.
I can give an undertaking to do whatever is possible to encourage companies to go down the road, which many of their competitors in Europe are now using as a very strong marketing arm.