The Environment Minister, Arlene Foster, has ruled out an independent 'green' watchdog body for Northern Ireland.
She told the Assembly an Independent Environmental Protection Agency would cost Northern Ireland £2.5 million and take four years to establish. Instead, she said better regulations and working closely with businesses to root out polluters will be used instead. Mrs Foster went on: "I and my Party (DUP) take the role of environmental governance too seriously to externalise the organisation into an outside agency."
"The return to devolution resulted in the appointment of local Ministers to make decisions. I am opposed to the setting up of yet more quangos where unelected people take decisions on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland."
The Fermanagh/South Tyrone member also said she intends to rebrand the Environmental Heritage Service. It will be reorganised and will be launched in July with the mission of protecting the built heritage and natural environment. However, the move will leave Northern Ireland as the only part of the UK and Ireland which does not have an independent body to safe-guard the environment. And, her decision has been slammed by the environmental campaigners, 'Friends of the Earth'.
John Woods, Director of 'Friends of the Earth' warned that his group might be prepared to go to the European Commission over the decision. He said: "If Northern Ireland isn't prepared to take it's own environment seriously, there is one body that will, that is the European Commission. They will enforce to the letter of the law."
The Green Party's Environment spokesperson also hit out at Mrs Foster, describing the decision as, 'abysmal'.
Dr. Peter Doran, South and East Belfast Greens said: "The Minister Arlene has demonstrated the need for a truly 'independent' Environment Protection Agency when she used her position to pander to the special pleading of the Ulster Farmers Union and the construction industry rather than take the expert advice of the Review of Environmental Governance".
He went on: "The purpose of the proposed 'independent' Environment Protection Agency is to remove important environmental and strategic planning decisions from the day-to-day pressures on elected representatives. Instead, Minster Foster's bid to take a seat in the next Westminster election has taken priority over the advice of the experts who delivered their report on the Review of Environmental Governance (NI)."
Describing as 'absurd' the Minister's claim that environmental governance was not a cross-cutting issue, Dr. Doran said: "Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the UUP have voiced their support for an independent EPA, so it will be interesting to see if their Ministers voice opposition to this decision. These Parties cannot play it both ways. They cannot nod their heads in the Executive and oppose the Minister during chamber debates."
Meanwhile, the SDLP Environment spokesperson, Tommy Gallagher said the Minister had failed 'the greatest challenge she is ever likely to meet in her ministerial career'.
"Arlene Foster had a one-off opportunity to take the politics out of the environment and the environment out of politics by establishing an independent Environmental Protection Agency, and she failed.
"It is a great pity that the Minister has come to the Assembly with such a poor response to an issue that is the single biggest issue affecting everybody on the planet in this century. All she has done is repackage her own Department, which is a bit like changing the chairs about as the 'Titanic' was going under.
"The problem of political control is that environmental management is and must be long-term, while politicians must work with short-term restraints and corner-cutting budgets. We saw that process at work today when Minister Foster made much of the set-up cost of an independent EPA without even mentioning the long-term cost of environmental damage.
"The Minister and her Department', he claimed, " are now presiding over a massive conflict of interest. Government departments and agencies are often polluters, or actively promote potentially polluting industries and practices, and they should not be allowed to police themselves. That is what happened under Direct Rule and that is why our water and sewerage system is a mess in both financial and environmental terms.
