I move:
That Dáil Éireann:
noting that Ireland's rapid rate of economic development is resulting in increased pressures on the environment, and noting in particular
that the rapidly rising numbers of vehicles in our towns and cities are causing serious traffic congestion, noise pollution and air pollution;
that we have already exceeded our greenhouse gas emissions target for the 2008-2012 period;
that our natural resources are being wastefully exploited; and
that child care, accommodation and travel costs are unsustainable in large urban areas,
therefore calls on the Government to implement a concerted and comprehensive programme of public and private sector decentralisation and regional development incorporating
targeted investment in water and sanitary service infrastructure for key towns to facilitate large-scale housing and commercial property development;
the accelerated roll out of broadband high capacity telecommunications services to facilitate e-commerce business development;
the relocation of Government Departments and agencies wholly or in part to towns requiring economic regeneration; and
the extension of tax or other appropriate incentives for service industries to facilitate new jobs and relocation to selected provincial towns, in light of the high congestion and social and other costs associated with the current centralisation of such jobs in metropolitan centres.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Ring, Olivia Mitchell, Deenihan, Neville and D'Arcy. I move the motion in the name of my colleague, Deputy Dukes and my Fine Gael colleagues in the parliamentary party.
This motion is very timely and worthy of the attention of the Minister for the Environment and Local Government because it highlights the effect our rapid rate of economic development is having on our environment. The quality of the environment and its reflection on the quality of life for us all is strongly linked to economic progress and development. We are now in a period of unprecedented growth, development and economic opportunity but the signs that our environment is under pressure are evident all around us.
The recently published report by the EPA focuses on some of those pressure points. Coming on the brink of a new millennium, the report is a timely reminder of the legacy of the past effects on the environment and what the future may bring if we do not pay attention to the environment and to the damage we are inflicting on it daily.
Sustainable development is a term about which we currently hear much. A national sustainable development strategy was published in 1997 by the Government. Its aims are to ensure the economy and society can develop to their full potential within a well-protected environment, without compromising the quality of that environment and with responsibility towards present and future generations and the wider international community. It is a worthwhile and commendable objective which defines the balance required between the environment and our development. That was published in 1997. In 2000, we can quote many examples of a deteriorating environment.
The environmental impact of many of our economic, recreational and leisure activities has not been assessed and only last week in this House, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government refused to accommodate an amendment from Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the Planning and Development Bill. The amendment proposed to include the term "sustainable" in the Title of the Bill as a measure of how firmly we believe in this principle. We called a division of the Dáil on that principle because we firmly believe that the term "sustainable development" should be included in such an important Bill.
If we are not prepared to enshrine sustainable development in our legislation, we cannot possibly expect that the principle will be carried through all levels of the administration of the State. We are paying lip service to that principle and allowing development and economic success to drive ahead at a cost to the natural environment.
The 1996 census showed that our population has risen to 3.6 million with almost 60% of the population now living in urban areas. This is increasing as more and more people move from rural areas into towns and cities. We have now become a world leader in a number of aspects of economic performance. In the period 1988-98 Ireland was the fastest growing OECD economy with an average growth rate of 7%.
Economic activities use two primary factors, labour and nature. Nature and the natural environment is used in terms of raw materials, energy, water, air and its capacity to assimilate or absorb the residual or waste material. We have become over reliant on this capacity. Nature and our natural resources are starting to show the signs of pressure.
The EPA report to which I referred highlights a range of issues which arise in relation to the current state of the environment in Ireland. It singles out a number of these which merit special attention. These include the urban environment and transport, climate change, greenhouse gases, protection of our natural resources, eutrophication of our inland waterways and waste and litter. With 60% of our population living in urban areas, the quality of the urban environment is a major concern for most people living in this State. This applies to Dublin particularly with one third of the national population living there.
Increasing urbanisation is creating the need for the movement of a large number of people and goods within our cities and towns. This must be accommodated by good public transport. However, it is not happening. We do not have good and reliable public transport as we have seen today and yesterday with the disruption in our railways. The lack of properly designed road services and systems to facilitate and provide these facilities is one of the main reasons for the deterioration of the quality of our urban environment. The concentration of large numbers of people in confined areas without the necessary supporting infrastructure required creates problems such as air pollution, traffic jams and traffic noise, all attributable to the number of cars, buses etc. that are required. These problems and conditions induce stress and can impact directly on the health of our nation and on those living in urban areas.
Many parts of our cities and towns contain streets which date from a much earlier age and are unsuited to carry large numbers of vehicles. All of these problems are destined to increase with the rapid rate of urbanisation which is seen currently.
The number of new car registrations rose again in the first period of this year by 50% on last year. This figure will increase again as more new cars come onto our roads. The development of large suburbs distant from places of work is contributing to the stress felt by people. A headline in one of today's newspapers highlights this stating that Dublin's suburbs are sprawling beyond the limits of London and Los Angeles. Bad planning has allowed Dublin suburban sprawl to spread as far as 50 miles outside Dublin. For many people, this probably means a commute of an hour and a half to two hours. An extra three to four hours in their working day adds pressure in terms of transport, child care and parking. The number of cars on the roads and the emissions from the road traffic have now become the greatest threat to air quality, especially in urban areas.
The main pollutants of concern are nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, PM 10s and PM 5s, and benzene. There is very limited monitoring of these. We give them very little attention yet they can be very harmful to human health, most notably creating problems in the functioning of our respiratory systems.
We do not have enough monitoring of these emissions. The limited figures we have indicate that there are major challenges ahead to meet the limits for these emissions. Over the past 15 years, we have fallen far short of reducing the most important air pollutant emissions as required by international agreements and it seems as though we are heading that way again with the Kyoto Agreement requirements. Having failed to stabilise nitrogen oxide emissions at 1987 levels by the year 1994 as required under the Sofia Protocol, it now appears that Ireland will not achieve the national target for sulphur dioxide emissions in 2000 required by the Oslo Protocol.
Greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels, methane, most probably from agriculture, and nitrogen dioxide have increased in the period 1990 to 1998 by approximately 19%. This has serious implications for our commitment under the Kyoto Agreement by which we are committed to reducing our greenhouse gases by 13% over 1990 levels. We signed the Kyoto Agreement when we had already overshot our target. With a current growth rate of approximately 4% annually in these gas emissions, mainly due to carbon dioxide increases based on the most recent forecast for energy and agriculture, the net emission of greenhouse gases in 2010 will have increased by 30% over the 1990 levels. That is more than twice the growth limitation target imposed by the Kyoto Agreement and agreed by Ireland.
Radical changes in policy are needed to reverse this trend and to make a substantial impact on the upward trend in these gas emissions if we are serious about sustainable development and about our international commitments. Ireland has ignored the Kyoto principles, to which it agreed. It is on target to increase emissions levels by 4% per annum and by 2010 it will have doubled the agreed levels.
Water quality continues to deteriorate. A trend of increasingly slight to moderate pollution of our river system since the 1970s has not been reversed and continues to worsen. Eutrophication is a classic example of the impact of economic development on the environment. It can be attributed to excess phosphorous from economic, domestic, industrial and agricultural activity, which has the greatest impact. Salmon and trout levels in our inland waterways have been adversely affected. The quantity of waste generated is increasing and has been the subject of many debates in the House. It is another measure of economic activity and the pressure it puts on the environment.
The intent of the motion is to challenge the Government to focus on the state of the environment and the effect that increased and rapid urbanisation is having on it and to channel resources accordingly. It also aims to encourage the Government to examine decentralisation in terms of relocating Government Departments outside Dublin into major growth centres and to develop them. It is also intended to highlight the stress people are under and the cost of living in large urban areas associated with increased expenditure on child care and transport. For example, vacancies in nursing are increasing because people cannot afford to live in the Dublin area. Many sectors offer a Dublin loading to try to attract people. However, decentralisation needs to be focused on to encourage people to live in smaller urban areas rather than large urban areas. This policy can only be followed if the Government is serious and is committed in this regard.
By 2011 the population will exceed 4 million and over the next decade 45,000 or more dwellings per year will be needed. This will necessitate an unprecedented level of house building which underlines the need for careful land use planning integrated with environmental protection. The protection of our environment is essential for this and future generations. Projected growth levels in transport, energy and forestry are highly significant and sustainable development in these sectors must be challenged and met.
The link between economic growth and environmental damage needs to be broken. I referred to the EPA report "Ireland: Environment" which demonstrates that when one examines any of the factors leading to pressure on the environment and the deteriorating effect on it it is linked to economic growth. The motion was tabled in the hope that the Government will focus on our economic growth and the pressures it creates for the environment and will reverse that trend rather than going down a long road on which it will be difficult to turn back.