Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

444 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance Resolving the current infringement procedures, and avoiding future ones, will require proactive action and prioritised legislation and implementation by government and public authorities in Ireland. Environmental enforcement performance of local authorities Local authorities play a central role in the implementation of environmental legislation and policy on the ground in Ireland. They managed almost 70,000 environmental complaints and carried out 197,300 environmental inspections in 2022. Waste and litter accounted for the vast majority (about 90%) of complaints and almost 70% of inspections undertaken by local authorities in 2022 (EPA, 2023a). Some 93% of the environmental prosecutions undertaken by local authorities in 2022 were in the waste sector (excluding litter). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a supervisory role in relation to local authorities’ performance of their statutory environmental protection duties. To help target environmental enforcement activity, enforcement priorities are agreed nationally, with a focus on water quality, air quality, noise and waste management. The EPA’s latest report on local authority performance (EPA, 2023a) found that most local authorities performed well in some areas, but none performed well across all the national enforcement priorities. Reasons for underperformance included differences in local authority management priorities, resource variability and the quality of information reported. The report calls on local authorities to prioritise and resource environmental functions to ensure that national enforcement priorities are delivered (EPA, 2023a). Enforcement of EPA-licensed industrial and waste facilities The EPA undertakes enforcement activities at EPA- licensed industrial and waste sites nationally. A total of 889 industrial and waste licences were enforced by the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement in 2023, with 1202 inspections carried out at 535 individual licensed sites (EPA, 2024a). The number of complaints received by the EPA decreased by 29% in 2023 to 960. Odour and noise complaints continued to dominate, accounting for 90% of all complaints received in 2023. Twenty- two cases were heard in District and Circuit Courts in 2023 with fines of €137,750 imposed and total costs of €245,047 awarded to the EPA. The National Priority Sites List is used by the EPA to target its enforcement efforts at licensed operators with the poorest environmental performance. A total of 50 facilities have appeared on the list since it was first published in 2017, with the majority in the food and drink sector (in particular dairy processing sites) and in the waste sector. Issues at these sites include discharges to water, odour and noise, and poor waste management. Chapter 13 discusses these issues in more detail and points to the need for continued investment and improvements to ensure that industrial sites comply with tighter environmental standards. Enforcement efforts targeting illegal, industrial-scale commercial peat activities remain a key priority for the EPA. The Agency has deployed significant resources in taking action against this sector, resulting in successful legal proceedings in the High Court and District Courts. The EPA will continue to target its efforts against these unregulated operators. The EPA also has concerns about the absence of regulation of the commercial peat extraction sector by local authorities and is exercising its powers under Section 63 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 to ensure that seven local authorities take the appropriate regulatory and enforcement action. Ireland’s performance on climate Chapter 4 provides a detailed look at climate change in Ireland, including pressures and policy responses. It outlines that, despite our climate action ambitions, significantly faster progress is needed to decarbonise all sectors of Ireland’s economy and to implement adaptation actions to deliver a climate-resilient future. The European Climate Law (Regulation (EU) 2021/1119) writes into law the European Green Deal’s goal of Europe’s economy and society becoming climate neutral by 2050. Nationally, the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 sets out Ireland’s objective of achieving a climate-resilient and climate- neutral economy by the end of 2050. It establishes 5-year carbon budgets for the economy and for specific sectors, provides for annual reviews of the Climate Action Plan and makes government departments responsible for achieving their carbon budgets and mitigation targets.