EPA finds that half of all complaints received during first nine months of 2020 were in relation to activities at four licensed industrial and waste sites

Date released: October 19, 2020

• Six sites were identified as National Priority Sites for the period April to September 2020.  There were from three sectors - Waste, Food & Drink and the Chemical sector.
• Four sites (Arrow Group, Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited, Merck Millipore Limited, Limerick Gasworks) accounted for 51% of all industrial/waste odour complaints in 2020.
• Three sites have been removed from the National Priority Sites List since the EPA last published the list in July 2020 – Merck Millipore Limited, Raffeen Landfill Site (Cork Co. Co.), Greyhound Recycling and Recovery.
• The continued poor compliance status and presence of Arrow Group as a National Priority Site remains a serious concern to the EPA and the facility is the subject of ongoing enforcement action. 
• Complaints to the EPA about licensed sites have increased dramatically in 2020, with 598 received in the first nine months of the year, compared to 225 in the same period last year.

The EPA welcomes the fact that three sites have come off the last National Priority Sites List which was published in July 2020, following improvements in compliance (Table 2). 

The current list identifies six sites that are the focus of the EPA’s enforcement activities.

Commenting on the publication of the latest List, Mr. Darragh Page, EPA Programme Manager, said:

“Most EPA licence holders work hard to protect the environment and comply with their licence. Sites can be added to  the National Priority Sites List due to a failure to adhere to their license and the risk they pose to the environment. But, it should be notes that these sites account for less than one per cent of the 800 plus sites licensed by the EPA.  The EPA will continue to focus our enforcement efforts on those who pose a risk to the environment or cause environmental pollution and those on the list can expect further enforcement action from the EPA.”

The full list of National Priority Sites for the period April to September 2020 is in Table 1 below.

Table 1: National Priority Sites - 6-month period 01 April 2020 to 30 September 2020.

*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.

Table 2: Sites removed from the National Priority List which was published in July 2020

Further information: Emily Williamson, EPA Media Relations Office 053-9170770 (24 hours) or media@epa.ie

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.

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 here National Priority Sites :: Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland.

Enforcement information on all sites can be found under the Licence Search pages.  In addition we publish quarterly updates on the enforcement activities of the EPA.

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