11/05/08
10 ways to make a difference to the environment
Irish Times
Saturday,
May 10, 2008
Brian Cowen wants to improve the planet for his children.
Here's how he could help to do it, writes FRANK McDONALD .
IN HIS
stirring speech to the Dáil after being elected as Taoiseach on Wednesday,
Brian Cowen made it clear that his Government would achieve its goals by
"avoiding the mistakes of the past". As he said, "we know only too well from
our relatively recent economic history that the wrong policies, the wrong
decisions, the wrong behaviour, can carry a very high price . . . " His Green
Party colleagues were particularly heartened by what he had to say about
addressing climate change: "As a father, I feel an obligation to make Ireland
a better environment for my children. As Taoiseach I must provide leadership
so we deliver on this for all of our children and future generations"
Mr Cowen is well aware of the deteriorating economic
scenario as a result of the global "credit crunch" and the knock-on effects
of incipient recession in the US. He also knows that the
Government's revenues are falling well short of projections made as recently
as last December, when he was minister for finance. So here are 10 things
he
and his new Government could do that would really make a
difference:
1 Introduce carbon taxes
Back in 2000, the
Government's first National Climate Change Strategy proposed carbon taxes to
achieve cuts in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon
dioxide. But then minister for finance Charlie McCreevy bowed to pressure
from heavy-hitters in industry, whose views were endorsed by then minister
for enterprise and employment Mary Harney, and the idea was dropped in
2004.
Since the Green Party became Fianna Fáil's coalition partner last
year, carbon taxes are back on the agenda. The switch to taxing cars based
on their CO2 emissions, rather than engine size, from July 1st is seen
by Minister for the Environment John Gormley as a first step towards
wider carbon taxes. Much will depend on what the Commission on
Taxation recommends - and on political will.
2 Allow local authorities
to raise their own revenue
There isn't much point in having a directly
elected mayor for Dublin (and ultimately other city regions) with
responsibility for housing, transport, waste management and other key areas,
unless the local authorities are given revenue-raising powers. Until 1978,
they could rely on domestic rates and, since these were abolished, they have
been largely dependent on hand-outs from central government. If Ireland
is
to have democratic and accountable local government, the power to
raise revenue locally must be restored. A property tax, based on the value
of houses, would be the fairest. But this is such a hot political
potato that all-party agreement would be needed. Other alternatives
might include local income or sales taxes, introduced on the
same
"revenue-neutral" basis as carbon taxes.
3 Reconsider the public
service "decentralisation" programme
Like suburban sprawl, the madcap
scheme to disperse 10,300 public servants from Dublin to 53 locations
throughout the State is a legacy of the Ahern era. Eight entire Government
departments are all still
slated to move to places as far apart as
Portlaoise, Killarney, Cavan, Knock airport, Newbridge, Mullingar, Wexford
and Drogheda. This is causing havoc throughout the Civil Service and in State
agencies. The
consequences in terms of loss of "corporate memory" would be
even more severe, with up to 90 per cent of civil servants in some
departments seeking redeployment in Dublin. At the very least,
headquarters functions should be retained in the capital, otherwise the
scheme will only cause further fragmentation in the Civil Service, as the
OECD
warned in its recently published review.
4 Kick-start the
regeneration of Cork and Limerick docklands
Ambitious plans have been
announced for the regeneration of redundant dockland areas in both Cork and
Limerick. But there must be serious doubt that they will materialise given
that neither city has anything like Dublin's critical mass of people and
economy. Cork city isn't even going to get a batch of public servants under
the decentralisation
programme; some 930 are to be dispersed throughout Co
Cork instead. Dublin's IFSC wouldn't have happened without the availability
of lucrative tax incentives. A case could be made to justify a
targeted scheme of incentives to kick-start regeneration in Cork and
Limerick.
5 Cancel the Metro North project
Metro North is by far
the most expensive infrastructure project ever proposed in Ireland - a 17km
line, largely underground, running from Swords to St Stephen's Green with an
estimated price-tag of €6 billion.
Its main justification is that it would
provide a link from Dublin airport to the city centre, though there are much
more economical ways of serving the airport - for example, a spur off the
Dart at Malahide.
The Railway Procurement Agency should be instructed instead
to concentrate on building a surface-running Luas light-rail
network, including a critical link in the city centre between the Sandyford
and
Tallaght lines. At least 100km of Luas lines could be provided for
the cost of Metro North.
6 Fast-track the rail
interconnector
Rather than being hung up on the "big ticket" metro
project, Ministers should recognise that the underground rail project for
Dublin that really makes sense is the interconnector between Heuston Station
and Spencer Dock. This €2 billion scheme would not only bypass a
serious bottleneck at Connolly Station, but more importantly integrate
all existing suburban rail services (including the Dart) into a
real network.
The interconnector, now being branded by Iarnród Éireann
as "Dart Underground"
7 Direct
Dublin Port to relocate to Bremore
Even as John Gormley prepares to sign
an order extending the Dublin Bay Special Protection Area for wild birds, the
Dublin Port Company is still pursuing its controversial plan to infill a
further 52 acres of the inner bay for port facilities. And Drogheda Port is
planning an entirely new port at Bremore, in north Co Dublin, right next to
the
Dublin-Belfast railway line and within a mile or two of the
M1 motorway.
Dublin Port occupies a prime 250-acre site that would
form a natural extension of the Docklands area; it would be worth hundreds of
millions of euro. The port company's position is untenable, but it will not
move unless it is pushed by Government to form a joint venture with
Drogheda Port at Bremore to cater for all freight. The port would continue
to cater for passenger ferries and ocean liners.
8 Cancel new Abbey
Theatre in Docklands
The Abbey Theatre has been seeking a new home for
years in a variety of locations, the latest being George's Dock in the IFSC.
Last October, it was announced that there would be an international
competition to select a design for the new National Theatre - even though the
site is not big enough to accommodate what the Abbey has in mind, and it
would end up consuming much of the dock basin. Now that the
long-running legal wrangle over the Carlton site in O'Connell Street has
finally been resolved, there is an unrepeatable opportunity to relocate
the Abbey to the city's main thoroughfare. At present, developers
Chartered Land are planning a department store behind the retained
Carlton facade, but the plans could be modified to accommodate the Abbey as
a new "anchor" for O'Connell Street.
9 Reinstate the Freedom of
Information Act
The 1997 Freedom of Information (FoI) Act was gutted and
filleted by the government in 2003, doing enormous damage to the public's
right to know. As Ombudsman and Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly
has noted repeatedly, the number of requests made under the Act
has plummeted since then - aggravated by the imposition of
quite substantial fees for seeking the now limited information available.
The original FoI Act needs to be restored so that we are not
kept continually in the dark about decisions. After all, even Ronald
Reagan said he believed in "government in the sunshine".
10 Review M3
motorway route near Tara
The die is probably cast for the M3 motorway to
cut a swathe through the setting of the Hill of Tara, despite all the
protests and even the words of poet and Nobel laureate Séamus Heaney, warning
that it would "desecrate" a sacred landscape. "If ever there was a place
that deserved to be preserved in the name of the dead generations
from
pre-historic times . . . it was Tara," he said in March.
One
last effort should be made to resolve the issue, either by rerouting
the motorway or upgrading the N3. Co Meath will soon be traversed by
no less than four motorways - the M1, M2, M3 and M4. In a country as
small
as Ireland, with a relatively low population density, how can
such profligacy be justified - especially when the coffers are no
longer full?
Frank McDonald is Environment Editor
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