This review was a major achievement of the last Government and in fact even includes key recommendations for a review of the composition of the selection committee that recommended this appointment to the Minister. The Review was intended to ensure the independence and competence of the agency and it is worrying that this appointment for 7 years has been made by the Minister without any cognisance of the Review Groups' recommendations.'

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The ‘Scientific Advisor' letter is clearly lacking in scientific objectivity, let alone any serious analysis or consideration of potential adverse environmental impacts. It reads, frankly, like the product of a public relations department.

FIE is seeking answers to 3 questions:

Is compulsory purchase required by the government of the mountain valleys?
Is a ‘bypass' of the planning legislation proposed?
Must the national transmission grid be radically redesigned?

‘A you can imagine', wrote one senior Department of Energy official, ‘there would also be very substantial geological, geophysical, environmental, habitat and social issues to be dealt with, even before you consider the fact that the interconnector with other EU markets would deliver the same benefits at a fraction of the price.'

Read the ‘Scientific Advisor's' letter . | Read the critique in The Journal ‘Sustainability'. | Read the Sunday Times

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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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Questions Nos. 374, 375 and 376

To the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government:

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress of his report to Cabinet on the waste stored at Haulbowline Island, County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will publish the safety file on Haulbowline Island, County Cork on his Departments website (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter.

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to concerns by the European Commission regarding the storage of waste at Haulbowline Island, County Cork; his views on whether any measure must be taken by the Irish authorities to satisfy waste legislation under EU Directives 75/442/EEC, now codified as Directive 2006/12/EC, and Directive 91/659/EEC; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
- Simon Coveney.

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To: The children of Mount Anville School,
Lower Kilmacud Road, Stillorgan, County Dublin.
14 May, 2009

Gabrielle@mountanville.ie & (01) 2832373

Dear Children of Mount Anville School;

We are very sorry if you are unhappy today because you had planned a fund raising event with balloons which we stopped!

We hope you will understand that environmental groups all over the world are joining together to prevent the release of balloons into our environment.

While many of these balloons do fragment high in the skies, some will always come down on land or sea. Science has shown that these balloons can and have killed animals - like turtles.

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Friends of the Irish Environment have written to a Dublin primary school in an attempt to stop the growing trend of schools using mass balloon releases for fund raising.

On May 14 Mount Anville Primary School in Stillorgan plans to release thousands of balloons as part of their fund raising activities.Each student gets a sales sheet and tries to sell as many balloons as possible. The balloons are tagged with a message asking the finder to return the label. Prizes are given to the buyer and seller of the balloon.

Balloons become 'marine debris', a lethal hazard for sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish, and seabirds who mistake them for jellyfish or other natural prey.

Press Release  |  Letter to school  |  Letter to Minister  | Irish Independent coverage

Ryan Tuberdy and FIE discuss balloons as an environmental hazard at the time of President McAleese releasing baloons in a 2005 controversy.

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John Gormley, TD,

Minister for the Environment,

Customs House, Dublin

7 May, 2009                                      By email only: minister@environ.ie

Re: Balloon releases from Irish schools

Dear Minister;

We write seeking your support to end a growing practice in Dublin schools of using gas filled balloons in mass releases to raise funds.

Primary schools provide their students with balloons for sale, each of which is tagged with the student's identification. There are then prizes for the students who sold the balloon that went furthest - presumably intact - and for the person returning it.

Vendor's claim that balloons are ‘biodegradable' and ‘self combust within a month' and that ‘95% of the balloons burst into harmless fragments at heights up to five miles above the sea'.

In fact balloons in seawater deteriorate much slower than those exposed in air, and even after 12 months still retain their elasticity with potential consequences to marine life.  5% - 10% become 'marine debris', a lethal hazard for sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish, and seabirds who mistake them for squid or other natural prey.

The school to which we are writing now [letter attached] reports that one Dublin school reported reaching as far abroad as Norway. They speak of the ‘spectacular event' and the ‘amazing' sight of ‘several thousand' balloons released during similar events at other schools.

Since a Canadian marine conference first brought this and related wildlife risks to notice in 1989, the mass release of balloons at public and corporate events has been increasingly controversial. San Francisco is one of many US coastal authorities to have banned the practice, and Britain's Marine Conservation Society supports similar measures.

At the time of a mass balloon release by Mary McAleese in 2005, Trevor Sargent sought to have the then environmental Minister, Dick Roche, ban these releases. While the Minister agreed in a written parliamentary reply that ‘there have been reports of marine animals found with balloons in their stomachs', he went on to say that he understood that ‘balloons form an extremely small percentage of potentially hazardous marine debris' and so it was ‘not proposed at present to introduce legislation prohibiting the mass release of balloons.' [23875/05]

In fact, a study on Cape Cod, on the eastern United States seaboard, reported balloons as the fourth most numerous item in its survey of marine debris. If Dublin schools continue this practice, there is no doubt that Ireland will contribute further to the problem.

We would hope you would reexamine your predecessor's decision and ensure that students in particular are made aware of the established environmental damage done by these increasingly popular school fund raisers.

Respectfully yours,

Tony Lowes

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Lower Kilmacud Road,

Stillorgan,

Co. Dublin

5 May 2009

Dear Ms. McGowan;

We were greatly disturbed to hear of your school's proposed use of a balloon release to raise funds planned for Thursday, 14th May, 2009.

We are aware of the vendor's claim that balloons are ‘biodegradable' and ‘self combust within a month'.

In fact, gas filled balloons can travel great distances. As you note, the return of balloons from other such Dublin school releases have come from as far away as Norway. On land even in fragments spent balloons will undoubtedly become litter, and as I am sure you teach your pupils, littering is an offense under the Acts.

While the industry claims that 95% of the balloons burst into harmless fragments at heights up to five miles above the sea, in fact 5% - 10% don't. Balloons exposed floating in seawater deteriorated much slower than those exposed in air, and even after 12 months still retained their elasticity with potential consequences to marine life. These can become 'marine debris', a lethal hazard for sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish, and seabirds who mistake them for jellyfish or other natural prey.

All of theses species have been reported with balloons in their stomachs. All seven species of marine turtle are near extinction and many turtles of two species in particular, the Loggerhead and Leatherback turtle, have been found with balloons in their intestines. Ingestion of balloons and plastic debris can cause internal damage and prevent animals from feeling hungry, leading to starvation. Even ribbons and strings tied to balloons can lead to entanglement.

Since a Canadian marine conference first brought this and related wildlife risks to notice in 1989, the mass release of balloons at public and corporate events has been increasingly controversial. San Francisco is one of many US coastal authorities to have banned the practice, and Britain's Marine Conservation Society supports similar measures. As an Island nation, should we not be teaching the value of and respect for our marine heritage?

We hope you will rethink your proposed balloon release and use this opportunity to ensure that your students are made aware of the environmental consequences of their actions at their early and formative age.

Sincerely yours,

Tony Lowes

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The Irish Independent's columnist Kevin Myers wielded his pen to mock Eamon Ryan's refusal of uranium prospecting licenses, claiming in his rant that it was the ‘logic of the kindergarten' and that ‘more than that I cannot, say, simply because I have no words to describe my feelings'. He was therefore ‘utterly incapable of framing a reaction to the welcome given the Minister's decision by Friends of the Irish Environment, that "it marked the advent of a non-hypocritical energy regime".

FIE's reply went unpublished, but it is alleged to be widely circulating in the Irish Independent offices.

"He has ‘no words to describe his feelings'. Aha. That would be nice. But it is not to be so..."

Read the exchange...

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Friends of the Irish Environment are greatly saddened by Deputy Tony Gregory's passing. Tony Gregory had a long record of supporting and assisting environment groups like ours, for whom he has tabled written Parliamentary Questions since the Green Party entered Government.

Tony Gregory's constituency and influence extended far beyond Dublin's inner city - the environment has lost a good friend.

Tony Gregory 1947 - 2009

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Matt Cooper of Today FM referees a lively debate on the ‘phenomenon' of Ireland's ghost estates - half built and finished - but virtually unoccupied estates built in the boom years. Cooper challenges Parlon's contention that ‘no one knew' it would end like this. Lowes goes for Parlon's assertion that the estate were properly planned and authorised, claiming that pressure from Councillors and business interest had led to a collapse of the planning system.

After the debate, the show received dozen of texts from residents in such estates around the country, contradicting Parlon's denial of their existence and showing the number and extent of these wasting assets, now valued at between 9 and 12 billion euro.

Listen to the debate. [MP3 11MB] 

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Letters to Trevor Sargent and Irish MEPs on the pesticides issue.

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The traditional way of life on England's hillsides and moorlands is in danger of dying out unless action is taken, an expert has warned.

The National Trust has called on the government to develop a strategy to protect the UK's uplands, including keeping farmers on the hills

Dr Stuart Burgess, Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), said disease outbreaks like foot and mouth, flooding, a lack of young people and lack of affordable housing has brought hill farming to the edge of extinction.

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As the Minister for the Environment announces changes to control rural planning, FIE is pleased to publish its Parliamentary Reply of the Year. The question is from Independent Deputy Tony Gregory to John Gormley, Minister for the Environment:

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government the number of one-off houses outside areas zones for development in county development plans 2000 to 2005.

REPLY: While my Department compiles a broad range of housing statistics for publication in the quarterly Housing Bulletin, specific data are not available on the number of one-off houses built outside areas zoned for development.

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