Local authorities must effectively prioritise enforcement resources to protect and improve the environment

Date released: December 02, 2024

• The prioritisation of enforcement resources on waste activities delivered improvements and positive environmental outcomes, such as the detection and cessation of illegal waste activities. 
• Local authorities did not adequately prioritise their enforcement resources to water, air and noise in 2023, with poor inspection rates and follow up actions. 
• Farm inspection rates are far below the level required to drive compliance and improve water quality.
• Local authorities need to ensure that only approved solid fuels are available for sale, to protect public health from harmful air pollutants.

3rd December 2024: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its report on the environmental enforcement performance of local authorities in 2023.  The report shows that the scale of environmental enforcement work carried out by local authorities in 2023 was significant. Across the 31 local authorities, 547 staff handled over 70,000 environmental complaints, carried out over 212,000 environmental inspections, undertook 17,000 enforcement actions and initiated 470 prosecutions.

The EPA's Local Authority Performance Framework measures and reports on performance against National Enforcement Priorities, focused on improving environmental compliance and achieving positive outcomes for water quality, air quality and waste management.

The EPA’s assessment of local authority environmental enforcement performance in 2023 found that eight local authorities achieved a Strong or Excellent score in 17 or more of the 20 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs). These were Kildare, Meath, Dublin City, Monaghan, Carlow, Cork County, Donegal and Wicklow County Councils. For the second consecutive year, Kildare County Council were the only local authority that achieved a Strong or Excellent score across all 20 NEPs. Meath County Council achieved an Excellent score in 15 NEPs and a Strong score in 4 more NEPs, which was the highest level of Excellent scores of all local authorities. Dublin City Council achieved a Strong or Excellent score in 16 of the 17 NEPs that apply to their functional area.

Six local authorities failed to achieve a Strong or Excellent score in 10 or more of the 20 NEPs. These were Westmeath, Galway City, Waterford, Wexford, Sligo and Kilkenny County Councils. This level of performance is not good enough and needs to improve.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: 

“The effective enforcement of environmental law is essential to identify polluters and non-compliant operators, and to hold them to account. Local authority leadership is critical in delivering better environmental outcomes through the prioritisation of environmental enforcement and the appropriate allocation of resources.”

Water Enforcement:

Agriculture continues to have a significant impact on water quality, resulting in excess levels of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to enter our waterways.

Patrick Byrne, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: 

“While the number of local authority farm inspections increased by 9% to 1,137 in 2023, the number is still too low. More farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reach the National Agricultural Inspection Programme target of 4,500 farms inspected in 2025, to improve water quality. We’re calling on local authorities to use their full suite of enforcement powers to drive compliance with the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Regulations and improve water quality.”

Air & Noise Enforcement:

In 2023, local authorities assigned a much lower level of resources to air and noise enforcement (8%) than waste enforcement (63%) and water enforcement (29%). Whilst Ireland’s air quality met EU standards in 2023, it did not meet the health-based WHO guidelines and there were concerning localised issues which led to poor air quality. A strong inspection campaign of solid fuel producers and retailers is needed by local authorities, to make sure only approved solid fuels are available for sale and to protect public health from harmful air pollutants. 

In 2023, many local authorities made little progress on implementing their Noise Action Plans (NAPs), aimed at reducing people’s exposure to transport noise. Greater action is needed to reduce the impact of noise pollution on people’s health and wellbeing.  Local authorities, in collaboration with transport infrastructure bodies, need to focus implementation of NAPs on the priority areas identified using strategic noise mapping. 

Waste Enforcement:

Waste generation continues to grow and recycling rates for municipal and plastic packaging waste streams need to increase urgently to achieve 2025 targets. For household & commercial waste, waste collectors are required to provide a 3-bin waste segregation service. Local authorities must target areas with low use of the 3-bin service where provided, to maximise waste recovery.
Local authorities need to target waste enforcement actions to drive compliance with the new national by-product criteria for greenfield soil & stone and waste recovery levy regulations, to reduce construction and demolition (C&D) waste.

The Local Authority Environmental Enforcement Performance Report 2023 is available on the EPA website.

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

Notes to Editor:

EPA’s Local Authority Performance Framework:

• The EPA has a supervisory role over local authorities and assesses their environmental inspection and enforcement performance under the EPA's Local Authority Performance Framework. 
  •    In the EPA's Local Authority Performance Framework there are 20 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs) which focus on delivering positive environmental outcomes for air quality, water quality and waste management. The NEPs are shown in the table below. 

* RMCEI:  European Parliament and Council Recommendation 2001/331/EC on the Recommended Minimum Criteria for Environmental Inspections in member states, known as “RMCEI”.

• The report sets out results of the EPA’s assessment of the 20 NEPs for the 31 local authorities. Each NEP is scored according to a four-point scale; Excellent, Strong, Moderate or Limited. 
• To achieve a Strong or Excellent score, local authorities need to provide evidence of satisfactory risk-based selection of inspections and appropriate follow-up of issues, focused on improving compliance and environmental outcomes.
• Local authorities, on average, achieved a Strong or Excellent score in 14 of the 20 NEPs in 2023. This is an increase from 12 NEPs in 2022. Local authorities are expected to achieve a Strong or Excellent score in all 20 NEPs by the end of the three-year cycle (2022 – 2024).
• The EPA published National By-Product Criteria for Greenfield Soil & Stone in August 2024.

Reporting pollution: 

Download the smartphone App ‘See it? Say it!’ at from the Apple Store or  Android Play Store. This App makes it easy to report environmental pollution and to submit a photo at the touch of a button.  If a person spots environmental pollution or dumping, open the App, take a photograph, add a few simple details including your contact details, and submit the complaint. The App will send the GPS co-ordinates to your local authority and make it easy for those investigating to locate the problem. This will allow your local authority to follow up on the complaint.

You can also call the National Environmental Complaints Line on 1800 365 123. The phone line is open 24-hours, 7 days a week and all calls will be answered by dedicated staff. The details of the complaint, such as location and nature of the complaint, will be recorded and passed to the relevant local authority, and followed up as appropriate.