People’s beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours on climate change are consistent across Ireland with no discernible difference between urban or rural dwellers.
New interactive climate change opinion maps of Ireland allow the public to examine and view national, regional, and county level data about Irish people’s climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours.
The maps show that across Ireland people are in almost full agreement that climate change is happening, and large proportions of the population are worried about it.
Almost nine in ten adults in all regions believe Ireland has a responsibility to act on climate change. In addition, almost eight in ten people in all counties believe acting on climate change will improve our quality of life.
Those who live in counties that are more impacted by environmental hazards such as severe storms and water shortages express slightly higher levels of concerns about the impacts of climate change.
While the evidence is largely consistent across the country, there are minor regional variations in the level of concern about climate risks with, for example, slightly more people worried about water shortages in Dublin and the Mid-East region. In addition, somewhat more people are worried about severe storms in the West, Mid-West, and South-West regions. These spatial variations align with known environmental risks in these areas.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today released new interactive maps of Ireland that show national, regional, and county level data about people’s climate change beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences and behaviours. This is the third key output of the Climate Change in the Irish Mind study, undertaken by the EPA and the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication in support of the National Dialogue on Climate Action. The maps allow visual exploration of data from the Climate Change in the Irish Mind survey. ViewHERE.
Speaking about the climate change opinion maps, Dr Eimear Cotter, (Director of the Office of Evidence & Assessment) stated: “The new interactive climate opinion maps bring the data from the EPA’s Climate Change in the Irish Mind study to life. At a national level the maps show a consistent picture across the country of high levels of understanding about climate change and support for climate action with little variation depending on where people live. We see a picture of attitudes, behaviours, and policy preferences to climate change across counties and regions that are closely aligned with high levels of awareness and worry about climate change in each area. For example, almost nine in ten adults in all regions believe Ireland has a responsibility to act on climate change and almost eight in ten people in all counties believe acting on climate change will improve our quality of life.”
Speaking about the data Dr Conor Quinlan, (EPA Senior Manager, Climate Services) said: “These maps allow the public to examine at the national, regional and county level, in an easy to use format, information on climate change and desire for climate action and we encourage people to go online to see what their county thinks. The findings of this, and the other Climate Change in the Irish Mind outputs, will be used to inform and support national communications on climate change. It will also be used by climate policy and decision makers, the research community, media, and the non-governmental sector. With future iterations of the Climate change in the Irish Mind survey, the maps will subsequently be updated”.
Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office Tel: No. 053-9170770(24 hours) or email media@epa.ie
Heath Road crater, close to the junction with R660 (Holycross Road), west of JYSK. Pic: G. Willoughby.
People travelling out to the townsland of the Heath, west of Thurles Town are being asked to take great care due to the existence of a 12.75cm(5in) deep expanding crater situated in the centre of the narrow roadway. Same crater, resembling a giant footprint, is located west of JYSK, close to the junction leading to the Heath townsland at the junction with the R660(Holycross Road). See image above.
Meanwhile, while we are on the topic of roads; do also take care when travelling on the Slievenamon Road, (N62), travelling south from Liberty Square town centre, which has been allowed to fall into an unforgivable, similar state of disrepair over past months.
Parnell Car Park, bottle and drink-can recycling containers are allowed to overflow unto new carpark.
Meanwhile, packed tight bottle and can banks in Parnell Car Park have been allowed once again to overflow unto the surrounding new car park area. People today are now using one of the aluminium can recycling containers to dispose of glass. See image above.
Once again, nothing whatsoever gained from our compulsory residential property tax.
A €10 million fund to help struggling families and individuals on pay-as-you-go energy tariffs, is to be signed off by Government, as part of a new energy poverty action plan.
Thurles Street Lighting.
The Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan will seek Cabinet approval for this new action plan, which will include the establishment of a financial support fund.
The money will provide further safeguard for people at risk of energy debt, including, but not exclusively, pay-as-you-go and electricity customers.
However, for those of you who received your electricity bills this morning, expecting to get a promised €200 discount; these customers received only a government electricity discount of €183.49, with €16.51 having been already siphoned off, to be returned back to government coffers in the form of VAT, deducted at the rate of 9%.
Meanwhile, it would be interesting to know the costs associated with over 60 public lamp standards remaining lit, 24 hours each day, since last April, here in Thurles, also being funded by the silent, accepting tax payer.
Waste generation in Ireland continued to increase in 2020. Our rising levels of waste make it difficult to maintain or increase recycling rates.
Ireland is in danger of missing future (2025) EU municipal waste and plastic packaging recycling targets.
Ireland remains reliant on export markets for the treatment of specific waste streams including residual municipal wastes, hazardous waste, packaging waste and more recently biowastes.
Immediate targeted actions are needed in 2023 to drive improvements in our municipal and plastic packaging recycling.
The EPA’s National Waste Statistics Summary Report for 2020, published today, reports on the most recent official data on waste generation and management in Ireland.
The report reveals a number of worrying trends. Ireland is generating too much waste, but this is not just a waste management problem. There are wider climate and environmental impacts of increasing waste such as the land-use, resources, chemicals and the energy involved in the creation of products that become waste. In 2020 key waste streams were also impacted by Covid restrictions:
Municipal waste increased from 3.1 million in 2019 to 3.2 million.
Packaging waste remained high at 1.1 million tonnes, the fourth year in a row that total packaging waste generated exceed 1 million tonnes.
Construction waste decreased by 600,000 tonnes to 8.2 million tonnes
Overall waste generation increased to 16.2 million tonnes, up from and 12.7 million tonnes in 2012.
Ireland’s waste generation continues to increase in line with economic growth, indicating that we have not succeeded in moving from the linear economic model of “take, make, use, and waste”. A recent OECD study found that Ireland has a circular material use rate of 1.8%, relative to an EU average of 12.8% . We need to move to circular economy where resources are re-used, repaired or recycled as much as possible, and the generation of waste is minimised. MsSharon Finegan, (Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Sustainability) noted, “A circular economy is one that is based on less waste and more reuse of materials; these trends show Ireland is going in the wrong direction. Our rising levels of waste are unsustainable and immediate steps must be taken to address these trends. Systemic change is needed across all economic sectors to shift the focus to designing out and reducing waste and promoting reuse and recycling.” Ireland is continuing to meet many of its current EU targets. However, targets for 2025 and beyond are extremely challenging. Our increasing levels of waste are undoing our efforts to recycle more, and our rate of recycling has stagnated.
For example:
Municipal waste recycling rate was 41% in 2020, however it must reach55% by 2025.
Plastic packaging recycling rate was 29% in 2020, however it must reach 50% in 2025.
Disposal to landfill has fallen sharply in Ireland over the past decade; a welcome development since this is the least desirable option in the waste management hierarchy. The municipal waste landfill rate in 2020 was 16%, down from 58% in 2010. The share of municipal waste sent for energy recovery increased from 4% in 2010, to 42% in 2020. Ireland remains heavily reliant on export for the treatment of a number of key waste streams, pointing to some significant waste infrastructure deficits and missed opportunities to foster a circular economy. Exported waste for treatment in 2020 included:
27% of biodegradable waste;
39% of municipal waste;
55% of hazardous waste;
50% of packaging waste; and
almost all WEEE was exported for the final treatment step.
Commenting on the recycling trends Mr Warren Phelan, (Programme Manager of the EPA’s Circular Economy Programme) said: “Our rising levels of waste are unsustainable and are threatening Ireland’s achievement of EU recycling targets. We urgently need mandatory incentivised charging for the collection of non-household (commercial) municipal waste. We need to increase the rollout of brown bins, collect more food waste separately and increase the capture of plastic packaging for recycling at collection and processing stages.”
Further information: Contact Ms Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office, Tel: 053 9170770, Email: media@epa.ie.
One in 20 private water supplies failed to meet the standard for E. coli, compared to 1 in 200 for public water supplies.
Local authorities are not monitoring over a quarter of small private supplies for E. coli .
More than 60% of government funding available to deal with water quality failures went unused by suppliers.
The EPA yesterday released the Drinking Water Quality in Private Group Schemes and Small Private Supplies 2021.
Drinking water is provided by over 380 group water schemes to approximately 200,000 people across rural communities in Ireland.
Additionally, over 1,700 small private supplies (premises like hotels, pubs and restaurants, crèches, nursing homes and national schools) provide water to approximately 60,000 staff, customers and service users on a daily basis.
Meeting E.coli standards is a basic requirement in the provision of safe drinking water. In 2021, one in twenty private supplies were found to have E. coli contamination, indicating that the water supply has not been properly disinfected. The failure of these disinfection systems put the health of approximately 6,000 people, that use these drinking water supplies throughout the country, at risk.
In addition, twenty-one private group schemes (7%) failed to meet the standard for THMs, including five schemes that the European Commission has identified as being of particular concern. Trihalomethanes (THM) are a by-product of the treatment process and are formed where there is an excess of organic matter in the water source.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “Compliance with drinking water standards in private supplies for E.coli and THMs hasn’t improved in recent years. It is essential that works to improve water quality are carried out as soon as possible to eliminate serious risks to people’s health. Private water suppliers are obliged to make sure their drinking water is clean and wholesome for consumers. Local authorities must investigate supplies that fail to meet drinking water quality standards and, where necessary, follow up with enforcement action to protect public health.” Funding is available to group water schemes and household well owners for improvements to their supplies through the Multi-Annual Rural Water Programme (MARWP).
During the 2019-2021 MARWP funding cycle over 60% (€36 million) of funding available for infrastructural improvements went unused by water suppliers.
Mr Noel Byrne, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “Water quality in private supplies consistently lags behind public water quality. It is disappointing to see that €36million of funding was not used by suppliers to address infrastructural needs at problematic private supplies. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage needs to complete its review of rural drinking water services, with the purpose of providing direction and support to water suppliers and to eliminate public health risks.”
During 2021, over a quarter of small private supplies, serving food businesses, nursing homes, crèches and B&Bs were not monitored. In addition, although there are 1,700 small private supplies registered with local authorities there may be many more that are unregistered. If a supply isn’t registered and hasn’t been monitored, there is no information on the quality of the drinking water provided to consumers.
Water suppliers in conjunction with local authorities must ensure that private supplies are registered, and that monitoring is undertaken in line with the Regulations.
This report outlines the actions that need to be taken to address the issues highlighted. The full EPA report is available HERE.
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