Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

463 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance departments, state agencies, and regional and local authorities in Ireland are involved in implementing environmental policies and legislation. To avoid inefficiencies, confusion, duplication of effort and poor implementation, there is a strong need for clarity around roles and responsibilities and effective collaboration and engagement. As previously noted, much of the responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of environmental regulations at the local level in Ireland lies with the local authorities. The latest EPA report on local authority enforcement performance calls on local authorities to prioritise and resource environmental functions to deliver the enforcement priorities identified (EPA, 2023a). Resourcing and capacity building The capability and competence of public servants is at the heart of good public administration (Boyle, 2020). Given the rapidly expanding breadth of issues being addressed by implementing agencies, particularly in quickly evolving policy areas such as climate action, the circular economy and nature restoration, reviewing levels of resourcing as part of strategic workforce planning is vital. Specialist technical expertise is essential and needs to be supported by training and knowledge sharing. High levels of staff turnover in the Irish public sector contribute to a loss of skills and expertise, which can impact productivity and outcomes. Regulation and enforcement A robust regulatory framework that is appropriately enforced can support the implementation of environmental policy and legislation. Many of the chapters in this report identify the need for more rigorous enforcement of existing legislation to protect nature, water and air quality and to control industrial emissions, noise and waste management. Ensuring that regulatory regimes are fit for purpose and that ‘regulation keeps up with innovation’ can present challenges for new and evolving policy areas such as the circular economy and bioeconomy (O’Riordan, in press) and, reflecting this, the Bioeconomy Action Plan 2023-2025 includes a commitment to undertake a full regulatory analysis to assess the appropriateness and functionality of the current regulatory system. Smart regulation has become more common in recent years in the context of addressing ‘wicked’ environmental challenges, encompassing the use of a range of tailored regulatory instruments including self-regulation, co-regulation, economic instruments, and command and control regulation (O’Riordan et al. , 2022). Investment and infrastructure Finance, both public and private, is an important enabler of transitions and transformations. Unprecedented levels of investment are needed to deliver the infrastructure required to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The European Commission’s latest semester report for Ireland (EC, 2024) notes that Ireland’s recovery and resilience plan includes measures to contribute to the green transition with investments in retrofitting, peatland rehabilitation and waste water management systems and also improving permitting, planning and grid connection procedures to accelerate the roll-out of renewables. The report concludes that Ireland would benefit from investing more in sustainable water management, in pollution prevention and control, and in the circular economy and waste. It states that over the 2014-2020 period, the environmental investment gap was estimated at €2.2 billion a year, or 0.7% of GDP (below the EU average of 0.8%). The gap is estimated to be increasing over the 2021-2027 period at €3.4 billion per year. There remains an opportunity to increase funding, in particular for water management (€910 million per year), pollution prevention and control (€838 million per year) and circular economy and waste (€827 million per year). While the investment gap for biodiversity and ecosystems decreased, the Commission noted that Ireland would benefit from further investing in biodiversity and ecosystems. Separately, the report notes that Ireland has low levels of investment in research and development relative to other EU Member States, which holds back innovation, productivity and growth (EC, 2024). Expenditure on environmental protection is an indicator used by the European Commission and includes expenditure related to the abatement of air, water, soil and noise pollution, the protection of biodiversity, the management of waste water and waste, and environmental research and development. The 8th EAP progress report (EC, 2023b) shows Ireland as ranking bottom among EU states in terms of expenditure on environmental protection as a percentage of GDP (Figure 16.6). Based on the latest 2021 data, average expenditure on environmental protection accounted for 2.2% of GDP among EU Member States in 2021, while in Ireland it accounted for only 0.9% of GDP (Figure 16.6). Notwithstanding difficulties in using GDP for comparing expenditure given the nature of Ireland’s open economy, it is clear that increased investment in environmental protection is needed in Ireland to address the deficits discussed in this report. Ireland’s progress is also being hampered by lengthy delays in the delivery of critical infrastructure in areas such as energy, water and housing, which is being exacerbated by labour and skills shortages (EC, 2024). In its EIR 2022 the Commission included two priority actions for Ireland relating to environmental financing, shown in Topic Box 16.8 (EC, 2022).