Irish Examiner view: Progress on environment protection
The August incident on the River Blackwater near Mallow, in which as many as 50,000 fish died, was as shocking as it was deadly. Picture: Facebook
While it appears — and Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has confirmed as much — that the chances of identifying and securing a prosecution of the perpetrators of one of the country’s worst ever fish kills is minimal, there is also an opportunity to prevent it happening again.
The August incident on the River Blackwater near Mallow, in which as many as 50,000 fish died, was as shocking as it was deadly, but having been unable to identify the source or cause of the incident, the authorities have to ensure it doesn’t happen again in order to win back public confidence.
The news this week that a dairy processing plant in Kanturk has had to stop production over the past two weeks after its main wastewater discharge pipe was found to have released effluent containing high levels of ammonia into the River Allow — a tributary of the Blackwater — is concrete evidence that progress is being made in protecting our natural habitats.
North Cork Creameries, which owns and runs the Kanturk facility, was cleared of involvement in the Blackwater fish kill, but violations of its environmental licence came to light during the investigation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of the bodies involved in that investigation, has confirmed the plant will not be permitted to resume discharging effluent until its issues have been resolved.
The investigation report in September found that Kanturk was “a site with a history of failure to consistently achieve compliance with its licence discharge conditions”.
EPA records show that, on November 11 last, high levels of ammonia were detected in a sample of wastewater released into the River Allow from the Kanturk plant’s main discharge point. It is permitted under its licence to discharge 0.5mg of ammonia per litre of wastewater, but the sample detected a reading of 27mg of ammonia.
That is some 50 times the allowed limit and highlights the need for constant and rigorous vigilance by the EPA, IFI, and other agencies with responsibility for the cleanliness of our rivers and lakes.
When it comes to keeping our environment safe and free from threats to both animals and humans, the public has to have complete confidence in the regulatory authorities’ ability to do their job.
Talk is cheap — especially in the age of the keyboard warrior social media commentator.
Thus, the wave of commentary in recent days about the amount of international travel being undertaken by Taoiseach Micheál Martin since he took office earlier this year is an ample signal of how petty and stupid people can be.
Certainly, the Taoiseach has been clocking up the air miles during 2025 but, in the age in which we live, it is vitally important to have Ireland’s voice heard amid a howling backdrop of war, international tariffs, climate concerns and, in the case of Palestine, genocide.
Sure, Mr Martin has been back and forth to EU meetings quite a lot; he’s been to Japan, Canada, New York, the UK (twice), America for St Patrick’s Day, Brazil for the Cop conference and, most recently, to South Africa for the G20 summit and Angola for the EU-Africa conference. But for him to be accused of ignoring domestic issues while engaging so much internationally, is to ignore the fact that much of Ireland’s recent financial well-being has emerged from the strength of our international ties and partnerships.
Isolationism was once a core part of the Irish political worldview, but in the modern era to adopt such a policy would be infantile and counterproductive.
Ireland needs a strong international presence to try and influence matters which are of a grave concern to our people and our economy and Mr Martin is doing an excellent job of making sure the Irish voice is heard and respected.
To criticise him for making sure that is the case is nothing short of vapid and short-sighted.
The abrupt announcement by Marjorie Taylor Green that she’s going to resign her seat in the US congress blindsided a lot of her Republican colleagues — especially as it will potentially impact on the fragile majority her party enjoys.
With her decision taking effect in January, it will leave the Republicans with a vacant seat at least into the spring as the US heads into its mid-term elections.
But aside from denting her party’s ability to pass legislation in the coming months, the decision by the Georgia congresswoman has highlighted growing divisions within Donald Trump’s previously rock-solid core Maga support base.
Throughout the last five years, Trump has relied upon the unrelenting backing of numerous far-right lawmakers in Congress, one of the most vocal and loudest of whom was Taylor Green.
Given her past unwavering loyalty to Trump, the resignation followed a short but vituperous exchange of views between the Georgian and the Oval Office in which Trump described her as a traitor, despite having previously considered her one of his closest allies.
Her unwavering resolve to force a vote in Congress to have the entire Department of Justice files on convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein released to the public soured the relationship badly.
Taylor Green’s subsequent decision to resign has underscored deep dissatisfaction within Trump’s base with his agenda and could well be a turning point in making him a lame-duck president who can no longer force legislation through Congress at will.
In the wake of her decision, several other Republican representatives in the House have voiced their support for her and their dissatisfaction with the decisions being made in the Oval Office. That does not bode well for the Trump administration.
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