Sir, – It seems that every time an existential decision needs to be made about a certain area of Ireland’s survival this Government’s response is to create a new ministry, fund a report or undertake a review, never to just act.
Ireland is in very real danger of its entire marine ecosystem collapsing in the next few years. Indeed the process is already well under way and Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s response to this is to create a new dedicated ministry and spend millions on a referendum – in a feeble effort to kick the ball down the line.
Some of you might know what a sprat is; for those that do not it is a fish that most other fish and ocean mammals eat – and our Government continues to allow them to be overfished to extinction to be ground into pellets for farmed salmon, essentially taking away the primary food source for our entire marine ecosystem.
No humpback whales have been spotted in Ireland yet this year due to the lack of food, which the Government is to blame for, and this is just the beginning. (The sprat fishing industry is worth around €3m to the Irish economy while marine tourism is worth billions.)
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This hand sitting reminds me of our long overdue enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill. How long are the people of Ireland expected to wait while the Government gift wraps our national outrage and environmental crises in red tape rather than simply enacting the necessary laws and regulations that have already been researched, reviewed and proven popular and necessary. – Yours, etc,
THEO DILLON,
The Environmental Forum,
Cork.
