Bad decisions threaten our environment

IN its environmental performance review, the OECD recently praised environmental research and innovation being carried out in Ireland.

While the development of a smart and green economy could make a major contribution to recovery, the Government continues to make poor decisions which threaten the natural environment that provides these opportunities.

Ireland inches ever closer to fines for failing to meet the requirements of EU environmental protection legislation such as the birds directive, and yet we see a raft of paradoxical decision-making preventing the environment from becoming the economic asset that it could and should be.