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TIPT is a free environmental news service published by Friends of the Irish Environment weekly on Tuesdays. More than 12,900 stories from the last four years are searchable on our website, where comments can be posted on individual stories.
http://friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/ |
| State 'likely to be sued' over Haulbowline dump |
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 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.
Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) predicted medical claims will be lodged by locals on grounds the community's health was put at risk when the steel plant was in operation. They warned that others are likely to sue the State for its failure to ensure toxic byproducts were disposed of properly.
The conclusion of its Toxic Island report, published yesterday, stated that the contractor, who was commissioned by the Department of the Environment (DOE) to clean up the site, could seek an action at the Commercial Court over the terms of the termination of his contract. Read more.
And read 'Toxic Island', FIE's illustrated story of the contamination at Haullbowline Island... |
| Blueprint for Island being finalized |
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The Department of the Environment is finalizing a draft plan on how the harbour island of Haulbowline can be cleaned up and redeveloped.The blueprint will be brought to cabinet shortly and will list options for the safe disposal of waste from the Irish Steel plant and redevelopment of the site. Meanwhile, a spokesman strongly denied that the Department is refusing to publish test results which show extraordinary breaches of toxic waste legislation 'They are not our tests. The contractor may have said he sent them but we cannot locate them.' Read more. |
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EU drops cases against Ireland |
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THE EUROPEAN Commission has closed two long-running cases of nature protection infringements against Ireland on the grounds that the breaches have been addressed. One related to the failure of Ireland to meet a 1995 deadline to provide a list of nature sites where Ireland's most endangered habitats and species were located. The second infringement was a failure by Ireland to take measures to mitigate the extensive damage that was caused by the overgrazing of sheep on Irish uplands. Both cases were the subject of adverse judgments by the European Court of Justice. Read more. |
| How An Bord Pleanala shot down Dunne plan and buried Celtic Tiger |
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THIS IS a huge setback for developer Seán Dunne, for the bankers who so willingly lent him loads of money to buy "prime sites" in Ballsbridge and even for those commentators who believed that An Bord Pleanála simply had to rubber-stamp high-rise schemes for the area, to ensure that the banks would survive.
Ireland was a different country in autumn 2005 when Dunne shelled out a total of €379 million for the privilege of acquiring the Jurys and Berkeley Court hotel sites in the heart of Ballsbridge and talked about his ambitious plans to redevelop the combined seven-acre site for a high-rise, high-density scheme. Read more. |
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A EUR10m deal to erect 60 billboards? Only in Dun Laoghaire |
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 DUN Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has awarded a 10-year, EUR10m contract to a company for the rights to erect just 60 advertising billboards.
A councillor has urged that officials carefully assess the value of the contract with leading outdoor media company, Clear Channel Ireland. The awarding of the contract comes in the wake of a highly controversial deal struck by Dublin City Council with a French advertising company, JC Decaux, whereby EURlm a year will be paid for 15 years in exchange for 450 bicycles. Read more. |
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Pidí's €4m plan for Ventry gets green light |
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POLITICIANS in Kerry have given overwhelming support to Páidí Ó Sé in his bid to rezone one of the most scenic parts of Kerry for a €4 million project. The former Kerry manager lobbied councillors to back his attempts to rezone his premises and some surrounding land at Ard Bhóthar from Prime Special Amenity and make way for a sports interpretative centre and accommodation. The centre will be named Sports Story Ireland and will highlight the achievement of all Irish sporing heros, including the story of Fionn MacCumhaill. But council management fought the proposal and have constantly argued that no development should take place in that area. They also claimed that the proposed zoning change was illegal. Read more.
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| Eyebrows raised as tower plan gets the go-ahead |
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KILLARNEY Town Council's decision last week to grant permission for a viewing platform which would protrude some 271 feet into the Killarney sky, has raised more than a few eyebrows in the town. While concerns have largely surrounded the aesthetic nature of the structure, there's a concern that Killarney could be selling itself short. Like the woman who reveals too much on the first date, the fear is that tourists may see too much of the picturesque area at the first attempt and lose the desire to explore further. Read more. |
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Amount of food waste going to landfill is rising says EPA report |
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 NEW BYLAWS must be introduced to stop increasing volumes of household and commercial food waste from being dumped in landfill, the Environmental Protection Agency has said. Ireland is facing millions of euro in fines from the EU if it fails to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill by 35 per cent next year.
According to the latest figures from the EPA 1,485,968 tonnes of biodegradable waste were dumped in landfill in 2007. The maximum quantity allowed by the EU landfill directive in 2010 will be 967,433 tonnes. Read more. |
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Wexford public bus service to be scaledback |
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 THE public bus service in Waterford could be facing the removal of up to 15 buses from the service in the coming months. Union representatives and management are to meet on Wednesday to discuss the exact impact of the proposed cuts. Although the routes affected have not yet been outlined, it is feared that some of the more rural and less used services will be axed.
The cutbacks have been blamed on, what Bus Eireann has described as, the unprecedented economic downturn, which led to a four percent decrease in customer numbers in 2008. Read more. |
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Up to 110 posts at risk at Coillte |
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 FEARS have been expressed for the future of the forestry industry with news that up to 100 jobs are to be lost at Coillte.
The state forestry body confirmed it had agreed terms with trade union SIPTU for a scheme of early retirement/voluntary redundancies for a number of industrial staff.
Christy Nolan, chairman of the Irish Forestry Contractors Association, said he had been told up to 110 jobs were to be shed. Read more. |
| Ongoing odour problems prompt call for Ballagh landfill closure date |
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 HOUSEHOLDS AND residents in the Lung area of Ballaghaderreen are calling for a definitive closure date for the landfill on foot of ongoing odour problems at the facility. Fed up with being plagued by foul odours coming from the landfill facility for years, residents in the area are now calling on Roscommon County Council to give a definitive closure date for the landfill.
The fresh calls were made this week following numerous complaints by residents in recent weeks and months over the unrelenting stench coming from the facility. It is understood that there were problems with Cell 7 before Christmas but residents now fear that the opening of Cell 8 in the New Year has opened a new can of worms. Read more. |
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Lough Ree water abstraction unlikely to go ahead |
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 PROPOSALS TO extract hundreds of litres of water per day from Lough Ree to serve the Greater Dublin area in the future are unlikely to go ahead because of environmental risks and other concerns, members of Roscommon County Council were informed on Monday's.
The consultancy firm charged with assessing ten options to source a new water supply for the Dublin region attended Mondays' meeting of Roscommon County Council were they briefed members on the options being considered. While serious concerns over the abstraction of water from Lough Ree have been raised since the proposals were first mooted in 2007, the consultants informed councillors that the Lough Ree proposal was not a likely runner. Read more. |
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Clonmel prepares for clean-up as floods recede |
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 Heavy downpours on Friday caused the river Suir to burst its banks, and some parts of the town remained submerged in up to a metre of water yesterday. Stranded residents were evacuated from around 40 properties in the Oldbridge and quay-front areas of Clonmel on boats and Army trucks. A number of commercial properties in the town were badly damaged
Local officials are hopeful that water levels will stabilise in the coming days and that a clean-up can commence. "We're pleased the rain has passed and the amount of water in the river has peaked and that we are seeing a reduction," said the mayor of Clonmel Martin O'Brien. Read more. |
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Building houses on flood plains is destroying natural defences, says expert |
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 THE practice of building houses and other concrete structures on flood plains is destroying Ireland's natural flood defences, according to one of the country's leading experts on coastal engineering. "If you look at the rainfall patterns over the last 20 years, you will find that there has been a marked change. We are now getting severe bursts of rain rather than precipitation being spread out," said Dr Jimmy Murphy, coastal engineering manager with the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre, University College Cork (UCC).
Dr Murphy attributed much of this change to global warming which has lead to great uncertainty in predicting climate change. Read more. |
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Dangerous dumping of dogs on roadside |
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 A WARNING against dumping dogs on the side of the road has been issued by a local animal welfare organisation, who has branded the practice as "irresponsible and dangerous."
The North Wexford Society for the Prevention of Cruelty issued the warning after two pairs of dogs were recovered from the roads in North Wexford recently. In one case, two dogs which had been dumped on the Camolin road caused a truck to jack-knife as it tried to avoid the dogs which had wandered out on to the road. Read more. |
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Turf ban delay |
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 A CONTROVERSIAL ban on cutting turf in all raised bogs will not be imposed this year, according to Environment Minister John Gormley.
But he warned that the reprieve would be temporary and that 32 raised bogs will be closed this summer as part of a 10-year EU derogation.
Mr Gormley told turf-cutters in Galway at the weekend that transitional arrangements would allow cutting take place in over 100 bogs until next year
© Irish Examiner 2.02.09 |
| Union makes official protest over Sammy's attack on his own staff |
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 The trade union for Northern Ireland civil servants has made an official complaint over an attack on planners by Environment Minister Sammy Wilson. And it has challenged a senior DoE official to express her confidence in the under-fire employees. Mr Wilson recently rounded on planners in his own department over a refusal decision on the proposed Aurora skyscraper in Belfast city centre. A long-time supporter of the Aurora apartment scheme for Great Victoria Street, he claimed officials were resisting development because of their own "prejudices". He also stated: "Planning officers have a role to play in kick-starting the economy and in this case they have failed and failed abysmally." Read more. |
| Planners may force developer to rebuild demolished home |
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 A developer who demolished a protected building on Newcastle's promenade without permission could be forced to rebuild it, the Planning Service says. A spokesman said that although 141 Central Promenade, demolished over the weekend, was not a listed building, it lay within a proposed Area of Townscape Character in the Draft Ards and Down Plan 2015. Under planning legislation, planning permission is required for the demolition of such buildings. Read more. |
| Pollution: it's time for gloves to come off, declares MLA |
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 Over 2,000 suspected incidents of pollution were investigated in Northern Ireland's rivers last year, leading to calls for "more men and more money" to be provided to bring those responsible to justice. SDLP South Antrim Assembly member Thomas Burns described 2008 as a "bad year" for the environment after revealing that the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) has carried out 2,164 pollution investigations on Northern Ireland's rivers in the past 12 months - on average almost six every day. Read more. |
| Britain's ponds to double to 1 million |
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 Jeremy Biggs stomps through the ice, plunges his net in and shakes it vigorously in the chill water, churning up silt, broken reeds and shards of frozen pond. He tips the debris into a white tray and everybody gathers around. At first the melee looks simply dirty, then tiny flecks begin to dart and squiggle, and minute legs and tissue-thin wings start to show. Biggs, Pond Conservation's director of policy and research, identifies whirligig beetles, the pea-sized curl of a keeled ramshorn snail, a louse-like water slater, mayflies, freshwater shrimp, water-beetles, and a lentil-sized pea muscle. Read more. |
| Monaco Declaration - Marine Experts Implore Governments to Slash Carbon Emissions |
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Immediate government action to halt greenhouse gas emissions is needed to limit damage to fisheries and coral reefs due to increasing ocean acidity, warned more than 150 marine scientists from 26 countries in a declaration issued today. The Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification, released at an international aquatic sciences meeting in Nice, warns that levels of acidity are accelerating and that negative socio-economic impacts can only be limited by cutting back on the amounts of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere. Read more. |
| China blames pollution for surge in birth defects |
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Chinese officials told the state media that birth defects are increasing at an alarming rate and that a major reason was degradation of the environment.
"The number of newborns with birth defects is constantly increasing in both urban and rural areas," Jiang Fan, vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, was quoted by the China Daily's weekend edition as saying in a recent conference. The government's acknowledgment of the problem is a victory for environmentalists, who say the rate of defects is highest in coal-producing regions. Read more. | |
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