EPA         bbermingham@corkcity.ie    www.bbermingham.com

Minister, City & County Managers, Public Representatives, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am delighted to represent the City of Cork as Deputy Lord Mayor this evening and to have the opportunity

o    In welcoming the Minister for the Environment & Local Government, Mr Noel Dempsey to our City. I know he is a frequent visitor and very good minister for this Region. He gives us plenty of cash that we in our Local Authorities put to increasing the quality of the built and general environment i.e. the quality of life in our area. Thank you minister!

o    I would also like to acknowledge the Cities gratitude for the hard work, which the Minister for State in your Department “Deputy Dan Wallace” gives to the City and Nation we are indeed fortunate in the Taoiseach choice.

o    May I also thank the Environmental protection Agency EPA – who have such a beautiful website www.epa.ie and who seek “to promote and implement the highest practicable standards of environmental protection and management which embrace the principles of sustainable and balanced development”

The EPA is an independent body set up under legislation - July 1993.

The EPA has proven the wisdom of its being, in ensuring a public awareness and importance of a good environment.

Our natural environment needs to be managed and protected. About 155,000 jobs are directly dependent on it, in areas such as farming, tourism, forestry, etc.

Ireland was among the leaders in Europe in establishing an independent EPA with such wide-ranging functions to protect our environment, including the Licensing and Control of large-scale activities having the potential to cause significant environmental pollution.

The Waste Management Act (1996) gave the EPA responsibility for the licensing of landfill sites both private sites and those run by the Local Authorities.

You may know that Cork’s Landfill Site on the Kin- sale Road is nearing completion - it has less than 2 years fill remaining.

The last number of years has seen an enormous improvement in the quality of the management of the site.

This event to-night coincides with one of the most important decisions Cork Corporation is facing namely providing a materials recovery facility on part of this site or on an alternative site if found in the county with planning permission from Cork County Council.

This MRF will collect and separate the waste collected - the residue of which will be transported to the waste disposal facility in the county.

We must all be prepared to substantially reduce the waste we generate now, and to separate it, at source, for recycling and/or disposal.

At this moment, Cork City Council, has made a decision against the recommended site on the Kinsale Road Landfill preferring to develop all of it, as Cork’s Phoenix Park.

Options & time seem limited and the Minister may grant to the City manager the necessary powers to make the decision to proceed in lieu of a decision by council. We await developments?

The EPA also advises and supports Local Authorities in relation to management of sewage treatment plants and drinking water quality, which they are likely to licence in the future.

The Cork Sewage Treatment Plant at Carri-grennan, Little Island is scheduled to be operational by the end of the year 2003.

Again this decision was very difficult. The Residents of little Island felt they carried too much of the burden by already accommodating an Industrial estates on their small island? 

You can now appreciate that protection of our environment is very important to people.

Sometimes decisions have to me made for the “common good” which is extremely difficult to understand if the common facility, is very near you and this of course has become known as the “not in my back yard scenario”  

The EPA is doing an excellent job –thank you?

 I am looking forward to the presentation of certificates to senior students from the 3 Cork Schools.

The effort expended is very worthwhile as part of your own development in environmental awareness and hopefully you will exert influence on those around you to treat our precious environment with respect and maybe in a few years time, one of you students, may become the Minister for the Environment.

I am looking forward, to learning from the findings of the EPA’s Schools Environment Research Project, and I would like to pay tribute to all associated with it.

Well done!

Thank You

 This generation of Corkonians is privileged in witnessing so much transformation, which is ongoing in this - the Cork Region.

Vast improvements in road infrastructure and quality surface so essential for business

A culture of enterprise and innovation, in brewing Electronics, pharmaceutical & health products, manufacturing, technology, finance, and many other services.

An excellent infrastructure in sporting educational shopping and other facilities encouraging many to set up home in this region.

The City is in the throes of change and development but hopefully keeping its charm and prettiness.

We are in a hurry –

The renewal of our principle street is about to commence with the completion of the main drainage scheme ensuring crystal clear water

The island, the area between the 2 channels of the river Lee is in the process of renewal and part pedestrianisation,

New traffic flows,

The upgrading and turn about, towards the city of the railway station

And most exciting, a major City Dockland development.

Cork is now a dynamic vibrant European festival city, a provincial capital economically artistically & culturally thriving, developing and expanding increasingly self-confidant.

 Cork is challenged with its own anthem “ Beautiful city Charming and pretty Beautiful City my home by the Lee 

 The feeling and atmosphere of cosmopolitism grows each day with the film & choral festivals beginning that trend decades ago to the present day with so many Europeans 

Thank you.                         

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