This study was commissioned by the European Commission in cooperation with Eurostat with the
objective of improving and extending the scope of the environmental accounts for Ireland. It follows
two previous studies, Pilot Environmental Accounts published by the Central Statistics Office and the
Satellite Environmental Accounts for Ireland 1996, unpublished report to Eurostat (2000). As indicated
in the title, this study presents time series, which in some cases are of considerable length, and provides
information on what could loosely be called eco-taxes. Additionally, where feasible the study relates
environmental information to the underlying economic magnitudes and movements, and broadens the
information considerably.
The report consists of three self-contained sections. The sections cover (1) emissions to air, (2)
discharges to water and (3) disposals of solid waste and these three types of releases to the environment
are disaggregated according to NACE Rev 1 by five major economic sectors:
Agriculture/forestry/fishing
Energy transformation
Industry
Transport
Services
Households
though in some areas the breakdown is unavoidably less detailed and it is more detailed in others.
Section 1 on emissions to air concentrates on greenhouse gases and on improving the underlying
information on energy use. Behavioural analyses have been hampered in the past by inadequate time-series
of energy-related prices and taxes so that a large effort was devoted here to presenting coherent
time-series of these items
