Critics of Sellafield have called for urgent action from the Irish Government on revelations of serious safety failings at the nuclear reprocessing plant.

A toxin found in water supplying 400,000 people can cause miscarriages as well as cancer, environment campaigner, Erin Brockovich has warned her “Irish cousins”.

Drinking water for more than 400,000 people is contaminated with chemicals linked to cancer, but Irish Water has refused to directly inform those affected.

A 20-year-long battle between the government and the EU over the illegal land-fill sites and car dumps polluting the countryside, has finally been closed by the European Commission.

An environmental group has lodged an appeal against the expansion of a salmon farming operation in Bantry Bay, claiming that it would place too much stress on the marine environment.

Nuclear watchdogs in Britain have ordered the Sellafield plant to improve waste containment and fire safety after inspectors found breaches at the site.

The Department of Agriculture has refused, under appeal, to publish a report it commissioned into how 230,000 farmed salmon escaped from cages in Bantry Bay during winter storms.

A number of objections have been lodged to a proposal by the National Parks and Wildlife Service to “allow full public access” to the ancient oak woods and rarely glimpsed cascade at the western edge of Killarney National Park.

A full-scale war under way between the Department of Agriculture and the Inland Fisheries Ireland is likely to determine the fate of Europe’s biggest fish farm planned for Galway Bay.

RECENT storms and awesome tidal surges not only did enormous damage to the coastline, they also washed in a startling volume of waste showing that large-scale dumping takes place at sea.

Plans for another oyster farm in a scenic West Cork harbour will strangle the bay, environmentalists have claimed.

Calls are being made for the Government to introduce a levy on paper bags.

The announcement that Kerry Group will create up to 900 jobs in Kildare within three years provided the ideal backing for the estimated 20,000 farmers demonstrating in Dublin on Tuesday.

Minister Simon Coveney’s letter to the Irish Examiner (Mar 28) in response to your thoughtful editorial about fish farming does not represent the situation as he outlined it to the Senate.

Opposition is mounting in West Cork to plans by one of the world’s biggest fish farming operations to develop a €5.5m organic salmon farm in Bantry Bay.

THE High Court liquidation of five Whelan group companies has ended the quarry group’s 11-year long battle to construct a contentious €10 million explosives plant on the Shannon estuary.

WILDFIRES have burned thousands of hectares of Ireland’s countryside this year.

Environment Minister John Gormley is being called on to extend the plastic bag levy to paper bags.

A THIRD “budget” within 10 months in the Department of Agriculture sums up the state of the economy.

A LEADING environmental group has warned the Government will inevitably face court actions over the hazardous waste dump at the former Irish Steel site in Cork harbour.

AN ECOLOGICAL disaster is on the cards because of tree felling by the state’s forestry company, environmentalists have claimed.

The proposed M3 motorway will lose money, according to a financial analysis included today in TaraWatch's pre-Budgetary submission.

THE full extent of potentially toxic contamination on a 27-acre site in Cork is only now being revealed, despite a risk assessment carried out for the Government six years ago.

THE controversy over Ireland’s export of waste to China took another twist over the weekend when it emerged a shipment had to be impounded in Rotterdam last month because it was contaminated.

EFFORTS to reduce the export of tonnes of rubbish abroad were given a boost yesterday with the opening of a €5 million glass recycling plant.

THE little known Kerry Slug has crawled its way into the spotlight following a recent decision to re-route a small section of a major new roadway linking Cork and Kerry.

THE Government has been criticised for failing to take appropriate action to stop potentially catastrophic floods, which could hit this country early next month.

The government came under yet more criticism today over the rising oil and gas prices.

Ireland has been ranked 21st out of 146 countries in an environmental sustainability index drawn up by experts the universities of Yale and Columbia in the United States.

The Environmental Protection Agency is being asked to investigate a massive fish kill in Our Lady's Island Lake in Co Wexford.

The European Court of Justice is to rule on the legality of the €20 fee charged to people who want to make submissions on planning applications in Ireland.

The south coast of Ireland faces its worst environmental disaster in decades if pollution from the crippled Prestige tanker off the coast of Spain is not contained.