EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 9: Waste Figure 9.10  Municipal waste landfill and waste-to- energy treatment infrastructure (Source: EPA) Waste Management Planning and Regulation Responsibilities Interagency cooperation is vital given the existing planning and regulatory systems. Ireland’s waste planning and regulatory responsibilities and systems have developed over the last 25 years, and the EPA and local authorities have statutory roles. The EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE) is responsible for enforcing EPA waste sector licences and supervises the environmental protection activities of local authorities. The OEE coordinates the activities of NIECE, the Network for Ireland’s Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (Topic Box 9.4). Topic Box 9.4 Network for Ireland’s Environmental Compliance and Enforcement NIECE was set up to improve the implementation of environmental protection legislation through enhanced promotion, engagement and collaboration among public authorities (EPA, 2018c). Waste is a thematic area 27 and priorities such as illegal dumping, C&D waste, ELVs, tyres and landfills have been a focus. Regional local authority structures are in place for waste management, waste enforcement and climate action planning. The National TransFrontier Shipment Office at Dublin City Council is the competent authority for waste shipments and hazardous waste movements within the State while the National Waste Collection Permit Office at Offaly County Council is responsible for waste collection permitting. An evaluation of Ireland’s implementation and operation of European policies on preventing and combatting waste crime was broadly positive, and it made a number of observations and recommendations, including compiling waste crime statistics at a national level, keeping the EPA and National TransFrontier Shipment Office’s capacity under review to allow them to effectively fulfil their tasks, and considering evaluating the benefits of specialised judges in waste crimes or providing judges with structured and ongoing training in waste crime. They also identified an overlap in competences and gaps between the authorities responsible for the enforcement of environmental legislation and suggested enhanced cooperation between the stakeholders responsible for enforcement, given that waste crime is a concern and interagency cooperation is vital (Council of the European Union, 2018). 27 Water and air/climate are the other thematic areas. 243