Parties criticise planning 'policy failure'

Ireland's performance in the European Environment Agency report was described as "damming" by Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd TD.

He said it represented another "humiliating" look at Fianna Fáil's and the PDs' environmental track record.

Mr O'Dowd said while the Irish economy had grown rapidly since 1990, it was not inevitable that such an increase in transport emissions should have occurred.

"Better planning, greater investment in public transport and a greener approach to taxation would have prevented such a shocking increase."

Labour Party spokesman Eamon Gilmore TD said the figures illustrated "the fact that public transport doesn't exist in much of Ireland, and where it does exist it is inadequate and unattractive".

Green Party environment spokesman Éamon Ryan TD said Ireland's poor performance was attributable to a "complete policy failure on transport and planning". He described the figures as "shameful", and claimed they exposed the failure of urban land use and transport planning in Ireland.

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche made no comment on the report yesterday.

A spokesman for Mr Roche said the years covered by the EEA report were somewhat historical, and more up-to-date reports had been produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

However, the EPA was itself the subject of criticism from the lobby group Friends of the Irish Environment.

The group said air pollution levels close to Dublin's M50 breached EU air quality regulations, and this had not been recorded by the EPA because it does not monitor air quality levels along the M50.