Sir, - I was driving through Munster on May 21st, enjoying the extraordinary beauty of the countryside, when I heard about the first fish-kill of the season on my car radio. The incident took place in the Suir river, where a local fisheries official estimated that up to a hundred thousand fish may have been killed. The cause was identified, familiarly, as agricultural slurry. In the same news bulletin, it was reported that the Government were investing £9 million in the intensive pig meat sector. What appals me almost as much as this annual binge of self destruction through pollution is the Government's inaction in these cases and their active support for the sector which, year after year, contributes largely to it.
As I write, the intensive pig production sector is going through the process of being licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency. While this is a welcome development in terms of introducing some element of control, the latest pollution incident demonstrates the need for the Agency to be given more teeth.
In an era when sustainable development is recognised as the only sane option, the idea of promoting agri-industries which produce millions of gallons of slurry a year is, to say the least, misguided and illogical.
Prior to the General Election of '97, Mr Noel Dempsey promised that Fianna Fail would shake off the image of the past and show itself to be a party that cares about the environment. Unfortunately, unless you consider giving £9 million to the intensive pig sector a positive gesture, there hasn't been much evidence of this metamorphosis to date. - Yours, etc., J. Murray, Ballyglasson Environmental Action Group,
Ballyglasson,
Co. Longford.
Rathmines, Dublin 6.