See our latest slide show | Read our letter to the Minister | Read the COFORD reply

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Read the (rejected) appeal.

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After the disappointment of Copenhagen, Earth Hour is the one hour when people across the globe can show how by working together we can make a difference in the fight against climate change. March the 27 at 8.30 PM...

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As Dunne's Stores are given leave by the High Court to seek to quash the assessment of the plastic bag levy claimed for the accounting periods from July 2004 to June 2008, FIE has called the Minister's attention to the failure of the Regulatory Impact Analysis [RIA] undertaken by the Department of the Environment on the levy in 2008. Not only does the RIA exclude consideration of paper bags in its terms of reference (even though they are worse for the environment in many key aspects).

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Successful legislation in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are part of a wave of more than 30 bag taxes have been proposed across American cities in the past year. The need for the extension of the levy is particularly acute in Ireland as the plastic carrier bag has been displacied by an almost equal number of damaging paper carrier bags. Reusable bags only, please - and a rebate to the retailer from the levy as these take longer to pack than plastic bags.

Read the Press Release | The letter to the Minister | The Scottish Study  |

The Sunday Times 'Think Tank' piece  |   Radio interview with Gareth O'Callahan on 4FM

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FIE only this week became aware that its submission was excluded from those made by the multi-stakeholder body SWAN through which we had submitted.

We are also writing to the Minister, pointing out we now have letters from the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, Coillte Teo., the State Forestry Board, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and that none of these bodies have available the amount of forestry on peat soils in each River Basin District Catchments.  Read the appeal letter.

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‘I have seen the rape of its haunting beauty leaving it less and less the lovely lady it used to be'. Read the original article with the reader's comment at the end.

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Alas Allihies Weekends are no more. When they began at the turn of the century these kinds of gatherings were relatively rare - by now there are so many think tanks and weekend retreats being run around the country that groups and individuals no longer needed ours, and especially one so far away at the edge of western Ireland.

However because we work remotly and very much seek to bring in new people who are excited by this work, we are holding our agm this year on a Saturday the 10th of April - the weekend after Easter - in the midlands. If you want to come and meet us all send us an email.

 We'll be heading out onto the bogs a year after we began our campaign to bring under control the vast unauthorised peat extractions in the midlands. Has our work has the slightest impact?

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FIE has assisted in bringing the 10:10 campaign into Ireland with more than 12 environmental organisations. 10:10 is an ambitious project to trigger mass-engagement and unite every sector of a country behind one simple idea - that together we can achieve a 10% cut in the country's carbon emissions in 2010. This target is in line with what scientists say we need over the next 18 months - very different from idealistic targets set far into the future.

Teaming up with Dublin Zoo two 8 foot tall animatronic, blinking, walking, singing and dancing Polar Bears will set out to bring the message to Ireland's town and cities on January 20, 2010.

First visit the website and sign up.

10:10 in Ireland is

An Taisce + CELT +  Coastwatch + Cultivate + FEASTA + FIE + IDEA + Irish Wildlife Trust + Irish Seal Sanctuary + Sonairta + VOICE

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FIE has called on John Gormley to extend the plastic bag level to paper carrier bags in the interest of scientific integrity as well as environmental protection.

International studies that show that paper carrier bags should be included in any plastic bag levy as paper bags have a greater adverse impact than a plastic bag for a number of the environmental issues.

Read the Letter   |  the Scottish scientific study  |   and our Press Release | and the COMMENTS that re flying in!

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Irish lights accused of ‘vandalism'

The famous ‘Colt Rock' - a rock in the western part of Castletown's harbour with an iconic cut out sign of a young horse mounted on it many years ago - is scheduled for felling today. It was only in the last few days that some residents became aware of the plans of Irish Lights to ‘light' the rock with a navigation light to increase safety. Irish Lights have stated that in order to do this, the sign will be cut down.

There is great outrage over this plan as the sign is a local icon and a good luck token for the fishing community and dates back beyond living memory.

Irish Lights, who have behaved towards us with the greatest arrogance and condescension, informed us that the required Notice to Mariners was issued six weeks ago. This was not true. Minister of State Tony Killeen contacted us late Tuesday night with a copy of the notice. It was issued Monday evening, the day after we first approached Irish Lights. It gives 8 October as the day of the felling. 

Read the Examiner story   |   See their excellent picture

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The Minister for the Environment has now refused FIE's request to stop the ongoing unauthorised industrial peat extraction at our test case site in Westmeath because ‘Regional management has reported that there is no evidence of significant or measurable impacts'. The files obtained by FIE under Access to Information on the Environment show that National Parks and Wildlife Regional management had in fact commission a Report from their Ranger that said exactly the opposite - ‘While the activities carried out by this company are not being carried out within the European Site or NHA, I believe that they are likely to have an adverse effect on the integrity of the SPA alone and in combination with other activities.' This is not the first time FIE has found the Parks and Wildlife Service misleading the Minister as increasing evidence is being brought to us by the public that systemic problems within the National Parks and Wildlife Service management are leading to persistent infringements of European Directives allowing wholesale and devastating damage to protected sites throughout Ireland.

Read the letter | Visit our peat section

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It is said that the truth will out in the end. Bertie Ahern's 2000 ‘tree for every household' promised as part of the Millennium Forest Project was a great con job, pushed by the Cabinet over the professional advisors. Read the original FIE summary. The scientific fact is that of the 1.2 million trees planted, only 5% will survive to maturity because of the thinning necessary in growing broadleaves. In order for the 1.2 million certificates to represent mature trees, more than 25 million would have had to be planted. Instead of woodland planting of 337 hectares, 6,000 hectares would have been required. Now, an audit into the project by the management committee set up to run it has revealed just this, attacking the public's 'confused' perception of what the whole project was about. It wasn't about single trees - as Ahern had said all those years ago - but actually about 'forests'.

 Read the recent Mail on Sunday expose   |   Read about the Woodland League's ‘Where's My Tree' Campaign

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The Irish Examiner breaks the story of the eastern European workers who were sent onto Haulbowline Island to ‘clean up' the surface and shift 112,000 tons of contaminated material without any knowledge of the lethal content that countless reports had established was present.The Examiner ran the story largest on its front page yesterday but omitted the story from its website. Why?

People's health were put at risk because the operations that the Department of the Environment contracted to be done were unlicensed activities at an unauthorised hazardous landfill done without benefit of any environmental assessment whatsoever - and flying in the face of consultants' warnings of creating any disturbance going back more than 10 years - Reports that were not released to the contractors - or FIE - until more than 18 months of investigation.

If there is proof of a connection between the clean up work and these illnesses then what defence can the State make when they themselves wrote a contract for work that was unauthorised and illegal? And still their last letter to us makes no mention of applying for a licence - the cover up went too far and can't be reversed now.

See the photos of the cleanup   |   Read the State's response to our letter threatening legal action if they don't apply for a licence. | Read the Examiner Story | Read FIE's Toxic Island illustrated study  | and the studies that were never shown to the workers.

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AT 11.30am yesterday sixty odd Climate Campers of all ages strolled 2km from the camp beside the Shannonbridge Peat Burning Power Plant towards one of the Bord na Móna man-made brown deserts outside of the town. Equipped with some sacks, shovels, pillow cases, wheelbarrows, banners and good cheer, they started filling in the trenches made to drain the bogs with milled peat which was destined for burning at the power plant. The direct action continued for about 2 hours filling in a significant part of the trench.

Don't read the Irish Times report where EOGHAN MacCONNELL'S story about the camp must have been written some days before.

Visit the camp site  |   Read the EXCELLENT HANDBOOK, a primer on climate justice and, like the Camp, a ‘focal point for the creation of a movement in Ireland that resists the structures that have caused the climate crisis and demands justice for the affected communities, both at home and abroad'.

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Friends of the Irish Environment, who are supporting the Climate Camp at Shannonbridge, are referring Bord na Mona's immunity from prosecution under the Water Pollution Acts to the European Commission.

Section 27 of the 1946 Turf Act removed the obligation of Bord na Mona to comply with the Fisheries Acts which protect our waters. This is an infringement of EU environment law which requires protection of our water.

This case illustrates the European Commission's concern that Ireland's national laws are maintaining a system of parallel legislation which undermines EU Directives.

Press Release  |  FIE Peat Page

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FIE's extensive objection to the proposed location of the RNLI Lifeboat station at Castletownbere does not object to the project itself.

But the location ignores the most congested traffic pattern on the Bearhaven peninsula. FIE submission says it is ‘inexplicable' that a development relating to emergency services could ‘even be considered at this location', citing both the County Development Plan 2009 and the Bantry Area Local Plan 2005.

FIE draws attention to the Government's long standing primary goal of relocating all port-based activities on the adjacent Dinish Island, an infill island developed by the State for the marine sector with excellent access for emergency vehicles, including helicopters, close proximity to the hospital and no traffic congestion.

Press Release   |   Submission   | Irish Examiner: ' West Cork lifeboat plan hits snag'

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FIE has warned that if Government does not end the ‘derogations' for turf cutting on nature conservation sites it will face a judicial review.

In our submission to Minister for the Environment John Gormley on his Cessation of Turf-Cutting Scheme, we show that the ‘derogations' which began following the prolonged and strenuous objection from turf cutters after the publication of the list of SAC raised bog sites in 1997 are illegal.

There is no provision in the Habitats Directive allowing Member States to derogate from the site protection provisions of the Directive as the government has done. The Habitats Directive imposes a very strict protection regime in respect of protected sites. The true situation is that the Government unilaterally arrogated unto itself the power to impose, selectively, the terms of the habitats directive, when it has no such legal right.

Read the submission | Our Press Release | The Irish Times coverage

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FIE is calling on the Government to approve publication of the national risk assessment of historic mines now awaiting Cabinet approval for 18 months.

"Historic Mine Site - Inventory and Risk Characterisation (HMS - IRC)" gives a list of the mines around Ireland which most urgently need remediation.

A recent study of 52 countries showed Ireland to be second only to the UK in emissions of the potentially toxic lead on a per capita basis. Yet this Risk Assessment, completed in January 2008 to meet an EU 2004 Directive, remains unavailable.

Press Release   |   Letter to Minister Eamon Ryan

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