Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

341 Chapter 13: Environment and Industry Once the EPA has issued a licence to a facility, it monitors compliance to ensure that installations do not have significant impacts on human health or the environment and that they are carrying out their activities in accordance with their licences. The EPA’s annual inspection plan provides a baseline for site visits based on requirements set out in the IED (EPA, 2022). The EPA assesses performance reports, records and information that are sent by operators as part of their licence requirements. The agency also carries out inspections to make sure that operators are complying with their licences. Where non-compliances are noted, appropriate and proportionate enforcement actions are taken. 12 Compliance and Enforcement Policy: www.epa.ie/our-services/compliance--enforcement/whats-happening/compliance-and- enforcement-policy/ (accessed 15 July 2024). The EPA published its revised compliance and enforcement policy in 2019, following extensive consultation with various stakeholders such as licensees, industry representative bodies and the public (Topic Box 13.4). The EPA’s strategic outcome to deliver a protected and healthy environment by 2026 states that, “any regulated operators polluting the environment or impacting public health will be held to account”. Topic Box 13.4  EPA Legal activity The EPA’s enforcement approach 12 is underpinned by the principles of: ■ proportionality in applying environmental law and securing compliance ■ consistency of approach ■ transparency in how the EPA operates ■ targeting enforcement action where it is needed ■ implementing the polluter pays principle. Prosecutions are a key tool used by the EPA as part of its wide-ranging enforcement powers. While most of the cases taken are summary prosecutions in the District Court, more serious prosecutions are taken on indictment, through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Tralee Courthouse Between January 2021 and June 2024, the EPA took District, Circuit and High Court action. Figure 13.4 shows the number of legal cases brought by the EPA: 48 criminal legal cases which concluded in relevant District Courts and two in the Circuit Court. The majority of these were prosecutions taken against companies in the industrial and waste sectors, and Uisce Éireann (formerly Irish Water). Of the two Circuit Court cases finalised in the period, one incurred fines for the company involved of €34,000, plus costs, the other the sentencing of a waste company director to 3 years imprisonment, with 12 months suspended. The EPA also initiated District Court prosecutions and a High Court injunction regarding the unauthorised extraction of peat.