Overall good levels of compliance at licensed industrial and waste sites. EPA continues to focus on a small number of problematic sites

Date released: July 18, 2019

• 15 sites were identified as National Priority Sites for enforcement by the EPA in 2018.  These were mostly in the food and drink (6 sites) and waste (5 sites) sectors.  Improvements have been made at most of these sites but currently five sites remain on the EPA National Priority Site list.
• There has been a marked reduction (22%) in the number of complaints received by the EPA when compared with 2017, with the majority of sites (85%) not having any complaints made against them.  Of the complaints received:
  • 57% related to odour
  • 27% related to noise
  • 34% related to three sites
• 1,490 site inspections were carried out by the EPA of which 95% were unannounced.  One quarter of these were in response to complaints.
• 15 prosecutions were concluded in 2018 resulting in fines and costs of over €241,000 being imposed.

The EPA has today published its Industrial and Waste Licence Enforcement Report 2018.  The report gives details of compliance levels and enforcement activities across the 800+ licensed facilities in 2018. The EPA has also published the latest National Priority Sites List for Enforcement today. 

Commenting on the report, Darragh Page, EPA Programme Manager, Office of Environmental Enforcement said:

“The EPA targets its enforcement efforts at the most non-compliant facilities.  The publication of the National Priority Sites system last year has continued to drive environmental compliance and much needed investment in environmental infrastructure.”

The EPA has also published the latest National Priority Sites List for Enforcement for January-June 2019.  Five sites (below) are on the latest list for failing to meet the necessary environmental standards.  These companies face further enforcement action. 

Licensed facilities are identified as National Priority Sites for enforcement using a system developed by the EPA.  Points are allocated to each site based on compliance data such as complaints, incidents and non-compliances over the previous six months.  Sites which exceed a certain threshold become a National Priority Site and are targeted by the EPA for further enforcement action. The EPA updates the National Priority Sites list on a quarterly basis.

Further details of the National Priority Sites scoring system and the list of sites can be found on the EPA website.

Enforcement information on all sites can be found under the Licence Search pages of the EPA website.

Complaints about licensed sites can be made on-line or by contacting the EPA at 053-9160600.

Notes to Editor

The National Priority Sites for Enforcement system was launched by the EPA in July 2017 to drive further environmental compliance at industrial and waste facilities. It is based on the previous six months enforcement history at all licensed sites. Find out more on the EPA website.

Four sites have come off the National Priority Site List published at the end of Q1 2019, following improvements in compliance or reduced risk.  The four sites are:

The table below provides a list of National Priority Sites (NPS) for 2018:

*Arrow Group Limited includes the activities at this licensed site of Dawn Farm Foods Ltd, TCFG Naas Ltd (also known as The Culinary Food Group), QK Coldstores Ltd, Dawn Farms Distribution Ltd and Maudlins Waste Management Ltd.