State Papers: Top civil servant found EPA establishment 'objectionable' due to jobs fears

Businesses would not set up in a country where they had to go through environmental regulations, claimed Dermot Nally in 1990

Dermot Nally (pictured) also criticised the legislation for imposing an obligation on an elected body, such as a local authority, to comply with a direction from the EPA, a non-elected body.

The country’s top civil servant was strongly opposed to the establishment of a new environmental watchdog body favoured by the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey in 1990, newly-released State papers have revealed.

Secret Government files released for the first time under the 30-year rule show the secretary-general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Dermot Nally, resisted the setting up of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the face of strong support for the creation of the new body by both Mr Haughey and the Minister for the Environment, Padraig Flynn.