LEAP Online – User Guidance, Information and Resources

Access LEAP Online

Go to LEAP Online

After confirming you accept the Terms and Conditions for using LEAP, you will arrive at the LEAP Home page.

Enter your search term (Licence Number, name of Company or Facility);

Select the Licence Number (this is the active link).

This brings you to the Licence Dashboard for your selected licenced facility. From there, you are free to browse and drill down into the Licensing and Compliance records associated with the licence you have chosen.

To browse a different licence, simply return to the LEAP Home page and repeat the process.

LEAP Online: what it contains and how to use it

What is LEAP Online?

The EPA’s Licence & Enforcement Access Portal is intended to provide online public access to the formal regulatory correspondence that is exchanged between the EPA and its licensed, permitted and authorised operators during the regulatory process.

LEAP provides links to the correspondence that documents the EPA’s regulation of major industrial and municipal activities. This information tracks and illustrates the interactions that take place between the EPA and regulated operators to ensure compliance with EPA licences and permits.

How do I use LEAP?

You can visit LEAP at any time and browse information about sites and their activities.

LEAP Online can be accessed by Desktop and Laptop computers, Tablets and Mobile Phones.

LEAP content may be downloaded for offline viewing, but LEAP doesn’t include a Print function; your browser’s print function is available if you wish to use it.

Please note that the EPA takes no responsibility for any content or information when downloaded or printed from LEAP, and takes no responsibility for any use that may be made of information, from the point where it is no longer held within the confines of LEAP. See our Terms & Conditions for the use of LEAP.

What information can I access through LEAP?

LEAP provides access to the Formal Compliance & Enforcement Correspondence (FCEC) arising from the regulatory interactions between the EPA and licensed & permitted operators. These are the official regulatory records (reports, submissions, requests and so on) that are exchanged between EPA and operators for the purposes of achieving and maintaining environmental compliance.

LEAP provides you with the following types of documents and correspondence relating to each licensed or permitted facility:

Details of the location of the facility and the nature of the activity
Links to the licence or permit under which the activity is enforced, as well as information on applications for the licence or permit
EPA Site Visit (Inspection and Monitoring) Reports – including Licensee Public Responses to EPA Site Visit Reports; this is the operator’s Right of Reply to the issues raised in the Site Visit Report
Licensee Returns
- monitoring reports,
- site updates and notifications,
- requests for approval and EPA responses to them,
- EPA Instructions and Corrective Actions, and operators’ responses to them
Incidents
Complaints
Non-Compliance Register
Compliance Investigations (our interventions into non-compliant operations)
Meeting records
Public 3rd Party Correspondence (relating to a licensed or permitted site)

How soon after each report or submission happens is it made available on LEAP?

LEAP Online publishes most records 30 calendar days after they were created, either by the EPA or the operator (some content, including certain updates to previously reported occurrences, are published more quickly).

This deferral period provides for the conduct of regulatory business between the EPA and its regulated operators.

The deferral period is in line with the standard application period for requests under the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2014 as amended.

What major activities are included in LEAP?

public services – urban waste water
major industry – pharmachemical, power generation, minerals, cement, food & drink etc.
waste management – landfills, waste transfer stations, waste to energy, end-of-life vehicles, composters, anaerobic digestion
Radiation Protection Undertakings - medical, industrial, dental, veterinary and education/research sectors
dumping at sea – disposal of dredge spoil from port and harbour works

Where can I find out about the range of other information available about licensed or permitted sites?

The EPA website contains lots of information about EPA-regulated sites. These are a few of them:

Drinking Water – including audits of drinking water plants
EPA Maps – locations of licensed sites and features of their surroundings
Licence Details Pages – there is a Licence Details Page for every licensed and applicant site
Emissions Trading
Air Enforcement
Local Authority environmental performance
Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) & Fluorinated gases (F Gases)
Climate Change
EPA Prosecutions and Penalties

Can I download information from LEAP?

Yes, you may download any information from LEAP. Please note, however, that the EPA denies responsibility for and accepts no liability for any material that is printed, downloaded, copied or otherwise derived from LEAP, from the point where it is no longer held within the confines of LEAP.

What is the legal basis for LEAP?

LEAP is focused on making Environmental Information accessible to the public, and so it delivers one of the main objectives of the 1998 Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. This convention was put into force by Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information and is implemented in Irish law by means of the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 - 2014 as amended.

Frequently Asked Questions about LEAP

See here for more questions and answers about LEAP and what it contains.

LEAP Online