EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016

Executive Summary

enhancement. Issues covered in this report on the marine

area point towards the need to protect coastal, estuarine

and marine areas through better integration of the actions

required under different water, marine and nature directives.

Sustainable Economic

Activities

Integrating Environmental Sustainability Ideas

and Performance Accounting Across Economic

Sectors and Sectoral Plans Should be a Key

Policy for Growth

In a world of finite resources and a growing

population it has never been more important to

evolve our national economy and society to become

sustainably competitive.

This requires us to become

resource efficient and sustainable in how we produce

and consume. Ireland has in recent years dramatically

reduced the waste consigned to landfill and produced

less household waste per capita than the European

average. Ireland has pioneered economic initiatives

which have changed consumer behaviour and prevented

waste including the plastic bag levy. Our National Waste

Prevention Programme is well established and an example

of best practice. It needs significant resourcing at local

level as CSO data published in 2016 would suggest

that 500,000 national households do not implement

waste prevention in the operation of their homes, and

51,000 households do not participate in legal waste

management practices.

Putting the environment at the centre of decision

making is a key challenge, given the competing

demands placed on our environment by today’s

society.

We must move our material flow economy from a

linear to a circular one in which materials are captured for

reuse at the end of a product’s productive life. This evolution

will create opportunity in the green economy and ensure

that Ireland can move towards sustainable and competitive

prosperity. We could and need to be doing better.

Ireland has some notable waste infrastructure

deficits, such as the lack of a hazardous waste

landfill, and has limited current available capacity

in other infrastructure.

Built landfill capacity is at a

critical state with potentially less than 1 year’s capacity,

based on the 2015 fill rate. There was a 10-fold increase

in residual waste exported for use as a fuel in the period

between 2010 and 2014. Ireland is largely dependent

on export market for treatment of our recyclable waste.

Consequently we are vulnerable to external forces such

3 Water Framework Directive, Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC),

Urban Waste Water Directive, Marine Strategy Framework Directive

(2008/56/EC), Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (2014/89/EU) and

Nature Directives (2009/147/EC and 92/43/EEC).

as competition, capacity, currency fluctuations and any

changes to policy in the EU.

EU policies request that urgent attention be applied

to the phasing out, by 2020, of environmentally

harmful subsidies at a national level.

In Ireland,

this requires the identification, and phasing-out (or

reformulating), of existing subsidies, transfers, state aids

and tax exemptions which offer support for emissions

or activities that contribute to harming the environment

(i.e. negative environmental externalities).

With the plans for expansion of agricultural output

under Food Wise 2025, there is a need to ensure

sustainability of the sector for both economic growth

and environmental protection.

The environmental

credentials of agriculture, along with aquaculture, need

to be measurable and benchmarked to demonstrate

our commitments to expanding in a manner that would

not result in long-term degradation of our natural

environment. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and

adaption to climate change will be key considerations for

Irish agriculture in the coming years. It is clear that climate

change will require adaption to a new reality and this will

impact on farmers, as on all sectors of society.

Nature and Wild Places

Protect Pristine and Wild Places that Act as

Biodiversity Hubs, Contribute to Health and

Wellbeing, and Provide Tourism Opportunities

We need to protect our remaining wild places and high-

status water bodies from further deterioration so that they

remain a safe place for wildlife and people, and as a legacy

for future generations. Conserving what we already have,

and restoring habitats such as our damaged boglands, will

help provide wild areas that protect biodiversity, contribute

to our health and wellbeing and provide significant

tourism opportunities.

The current assessment is that habitat and

biodiversity loss remain a risk and there is a need to

develop initiatives to engage society and incorporate

nature protection in decision making.

In relation

to species and habitats in Ireland that are considered

threatened across Europe and protected under the

Habitats Directive, 52% of species are in favourable status

but only 9% of habitats are in favourable status. One of

the species of greatest concern is the pollution-sensitive

freshwater pearl mussel. The iconic Curlew is now one of

the threatened breeding birds species. There is a need to

bring biodiversity into the mainstream through biodiversity

action plans, robust biodiversity monitoring systems/

mapping and new approaches such as the ecosystem

approach/natural capital accounting, where appropriate,

in the development of policies, plans and strategies.