John Gibbons: Neglect and vandalism of nature one of the State's greatest failures

The contempt of Irish governments for nature protection has resulted in acute biodiversity loss

Nature and wildlife protection was starved of funding for over a decade to ensure it was incapable of effectively carrying out its job of protecting our natural heritage. Picture: Pat O'Connell

Many people were genuinely shocked this week to hear a legal team representing Ireland argue that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) does not in fact guarantee the basic human right of access to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

You might well wonder who could possibly argue against such fundamental, inalienable human rights. The answer is the Irish State, acting under advice from the Attorney General’s office, which was one of only two countries to present a verbal argument rejecting these rights.