Archived press release

Beauty queen backs call for Environmental Protection Agency

15 April 2008

A beauty queen from County Fermanagh has backed calls for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Aine Gormley from Enniskillen added her voice to the growing chorus of support for an EPA as she delivered 3000 campaign postcards to MLAs at Stormont this afternoon. Ms Gormley who is the Northern Ireland title-holder of the Miss Earth beauty pageant [1], donned the full-length green ball gown she wore during the finals of the competition, held recently in the Philippines, to deliver her campaign message to legislators at Parliament Buildings.
  
The 26-year old took time out from writing up her PhD thesis to add some glamour to the campaign for a new independent environmental regulator to replace DOE Environment and Heritage Service. She explained why she had decided to lend her support:

"During the international finals of Miss Earth this year, I was proud to represent a country that was perceived by people across the globe as enjoying high environmental standards. But the reality is very different. As last week's State of the Environment report shows, we have poor water quality, a growing mountain of waste, problems with illegal dumping and sky-high carbon emissions. And Northern Ireland lags behind England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the Government's approach to environmental protection: ours is the only part of the UK and Ireland without an independent Environmental Protection Agency."

Ms Gormley, a PhD student at the University of Ulster, continued:

"As my PhD focuses on freshwater pollution, my attention is drawn towards that area. For example, the Water Framework Directive which became law in the UK in 2003, requires that all inland and coastal waters in the European Union reach good chemical and ecological status by 2015. But some regulations that would help to achieve this in Northern Ireland have already been broken, such as industrial discharge consents. Furthermore, untreated sewage and waste continues to be released into local water bodies, including Belfast Lough. This has now become the subject of legal action by the European Commission."

She concluded:

"Being part of Government, DOE Environment and Heritage Service must defend the pollution caused by the Government-owned water industry, and remain silent when colleagues in Planning Service permit house-building that will overload sewage treatment works. But an EPA that sat outside Government would regulate without fear or favour. It would also apply the 'polluter pays' principle, ensuring that clean-up costs do not fall to tax-payers or consumers." 

Today's event was organised by the nine environmental groups that have been campaigning for an EPA. Lisa Fagan of Friends of the Earth spoke on behalf of the coalition [2]:

"There is overwhelming public support for a new watchdog to protect our precious environment, as we found when we hit the streets recently.
Shoppers and passers-by were keen to endorse our campaign when we visited Ballymena, Banbridge, Belfast, Coleraine, Enniskillen, Newtownards and Omagh earlier in the year."

She went on:

"Each MLA will receive a bundle of campaign postcards from their constituents today, demanding a new agency take on responsibility for pollution control, wildlife protection and built heritage conservation.
We are delighted that Miss Earth Northern Ireland has agreed to deliver our campaign postcards to Stormont, as well as adding her own voice to the calls for reform."

Notes 

[1] (back) More information on the Miss Earth beauty pageant can be found at http://www.missearth.tv

[2] The Coalition for Environmental Protection comprises:

Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland
Friends of the Earth
National Trust
Northern Ireland Environment Link
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Ulster Wildlife Trust
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
Woodlands Trust
WWF (Northern Ireland)

Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland
7 Donegall Street Place
BELFAST
BT1 2FN
Tel: 028 9023 3488
Fax: 028 9024 7556
Email: foe-ni@foe.co.uk.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust