The EPA is responsible for the environmental regulation of large industrial and waste activities. Our objective is to ensure that operators carry on their activities in accordance with their EPA licences.
Our Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE) works to achieve this objective through a combination of promoting compliance, providing guidance and assistance, monitoring compliance, inspections and sampling, and by taking enforcement actions where necessary. For more information on our activities, see Enforcing Licences, Permits and Authorisations.
The OEE Regional Enforcement Teams are based in our Headquarters in Wexford and in Dublin, Cork and Castlebar. The teams oversee compliance by the licensed sites operating in their regions.
site inspections carried out from Q1 to Q3 2024. 96% of site inspections were unannounced.
620 complaints received from Q1 to Q3 2024.
of complaints were for odour (48%) and noise (43%)
Incidents are categorised as minor, limited, serious, very serious or catastrophic
The vast majority of incidents reported are minor
target enforcement effort at licensed operators
with the poorest environmental performance
Go to our interactive EPA map which shows the locations of industrial, waste and other licensed, permitted and authorised sites
