The Labour Party has accused the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, of ignoring Ireland's commitments under the Kyoto agreement and labelled him "Meath's answer to George W. Bush".
According to Labour, the "appalling legacy" of five years of a Fianna Fáail/PD coalition is that:
- Ireland has been charged before the European Court with failure to protect the environment.
- greenhouse gas emissions are already twice the limit allowed by the Kyoto Agreement.
- up to 40 per cent of the water in some parts of the country is unfit to drink.
- Ireland's cities have become gridlocked as result of failed public transport policy.
The present government, Mr Eamon Gilmore, the Labour Party's spokesman on environment said, is leaving behind a "huge environmental mess" which the Labour Party has committed itself to cleaning up.
"The principles of ecology and sustainable development are at the heart of Labour policy," Mr Gilmore said.
"Our objective is not just to clean up the environment, but to prevent environmental damage from occurring in the first place, by pursuing an approach to development which is sustainable and which puts the environment on a par with economic and social considerations."