Dealing with plethora of agencies

When the three Orca whales swam into Cork harbour and right up to the city quays this summer, they didn't exactly get the welcome they deserved. The Naval Service tried to protect them in offshore rigid inflatables, but its staff were not empowered to take action against a minority who harassed the whales.

The Cork harbour-master had to invoke a by-law for the mammals' protection. Dr Niamh Connolly, of UCC Coastal Resources Centre, cites this as one of many good reasons to give the Naval Service responsibility for monitoring and policing marine and coastal environments.

A plethora of agencies and bodies share fragments of authority - such as the Marine Institute, which has responsibility for the marine environment, and D·chas, the Heritage Service, which is grossly underfunded and has just lost its one marine policy officer.

A spokesman for the service said sanction had been given recently to double its marine specialist staff - from one to two. But that one officer is now working with the Heritage Council, leaving D·chas without any specialist staff in this area at all. It is worrying, at a time when developments ranging from the Corrib gas field to harbour dredging require D·chas approval. However, it's small-scale developments that pose one of the most insidious threats, Dr Connolly says.

Such small-scale developments are not big enough to require environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Those projects that do require EIAs are largely in the hands of the developer - in that it is up to the backer to commission the EIA.

There is no overall statutory body to assess EIAs, she points out, and Ireland is the only country to have no such system.

Micheal ╙ Cinneide, director of marine environment and health services at the Marine Institute, believes a combination of good fortune and good management has resulted in Ireland having a relatively healthy marine environment compared to other European countries. Work carried out over the past five years to reduce dumping of waste at sea under the 1996 Dumping at Sea Bill will have a positive impact, he says.

He acknowledges there are issues relating to eutrophication (enrichment of water caused by excessive nitrogen and phosphorus from plant material), run-off, biotoxins and other contaminants - apart from the obvious problem of discharges from Sellafield.

The institute has an active monitoring section. There is a case for expanding this work, he says. The forthcoming Water Policy Framework Directive will require more monitoring of coastal and estuarine waters, and a steering group led by the Department of the Environment has already been established to implement its various sections on a phased basis.

On coastal zone management, he says the European Commission is keen to see Ireland taking a more active role - repeating pilot projects such as the highly successful Bantry Bay Charter. However, existing initiatives represent pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that could make up a national effort. The Department of the Marine's recently published strategy statement for 2001 to 2003 lists marine coastal zone management as one of its sectoral policy goals.

Tomorrow: Development hits Irish coastal areas