In total seven sites have been identified as National Priorities for enforcement by the EPA in Q3 2024.
Seven Sites were identified as National Priority Sites in Q3 2024; three were from the Food & Drink Sector, two from the Intensive Agriculture Sector, one from the Waste Sector and one from the Anaerobic Digestion Sector.
The most common issues identified at these sites were non-compliant discharges to water and facility management.
A site’s presence on the National Priority Sites List indicates a poor level of licence compliance.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) published its National Priority Sites list for quarter three, 2024. The National Priority Sites (NPS) System is a system of performance-based indicators to rank industrial and waste licensed sites in order of priority for enforcement. This allows the EPA to target its enforcement effort at the licensed operators with the poorest environmental performance.
Commenting on the publication, Dr. Tom Ryan, Director, EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “Our enforcement activities are risk based and we prioritise sites that are not complying with their licence. As noted in the EPA’s recent State of the Environment Report, a disproportionate number of sites on the National Priority Sites list have been from the dairy processing and waste sectors. This trend continued in Quarter 3 2024. The seven sites on the current list will be the subject of targeted enforcement action to ensure that the environmental issues are addressed, and compliance is restored.”
MsPamela McDonnell, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Industrial Licence Enforcement Programme said: “Three of the sites on the National Priority Sites List, North Cork Co-Op Creameries Limited, Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited, and Aurivo Consumer Foods Limited, are milk processing sites. Each of these has featured on the National Priority Sites List previously. Milk and milk effluent pose a significant risk to local streams and rivers if it is not carefully managed. The dairy sector must prioritise investment in environmental controls to prevent the discharge of polluting material. This remains a priority issue for the EPA”.
Other sites on the National Priority Sites list also pose a risk to water quality. The waste sites on the list include a non-hazardous waste transfer station and an anaerobic digestion facility. Both sites failed to provide sufficient infrastructure to protect groundwater and surface water.
Similarly, at the two intensive agriculture sites on the list, poor management of waste and storm water increased the risk of contaminated discharges.
The list of National Priority Sites for Q3 2024 is in Table 1 below:
The North Tipperary/East Clare Community Engagement area has a new Community Policing Unit.
New Community Policing Unit.
Meet the 7 Gardaí from the new Community Policing Unit for North Tipperary/East Clare Community Engagement area.
They will be stationed at Killaloe, Newport, Nenagh, and Roscrea Garda Stations, ensuring a consistent and accessible Garda presence.
Members of the Community Policing Unit will work a structured roster, in line with the Midlands Working Time Agreement 2024, to maximize visibility and engagement opportunities with the public, attending community meetings and maintaining a proactive presence in local schools.
Key objectives for the Community Policing Unit will include addressing crime and anti-social behaviour through problem-solving initiatives developed in partnership with local communities and agencies. Targeted enforcement, as well as focused crime prevention and reduction strategies, will be central to the Unit’s approach, thus supporting a safer and more secure environment for all residents.
The Family Courts Bill is a key element of the programme of reform to make family justice processes safer, cheaper, more efficient and less adversarial.
Judges to be assigned on a full-time basis to the Family Court divisions.
Best interests of the child will be a primary consideration in the conduct of all family law proceedings.
Today, November 7th, 2024, the Family Courts Bill 2022 passed through both Houses of the Oireachtas. Once enacted, the legislation will provide for the establishment of family court divisions within the existing court structures, a Family High Court, a Family Circuit Court, and a Family District Court. Judges who have specialist training or experience in dealing with family law matters will be assigned to the Family Courts divisions on a full-time basis.
Key reforms contained in the Bill include:
The establishment of a Family Court as divisions within the existing court structures.
The assigning of judges on a full-time basis to the Family Court divisions – judges who, by reason of their training or experience, are suitable to deal with matters of family law.
The creation of new positions of Principal Judge of the Family High Court, Family Circuit Court, and Family District Court to ensure proper and effective management of these Courts.
A requirement for ongoing professional training in the area of family law for judges.
Allowing for joint applications to be made for judicial separation, divorce, and dissolution of civil partnership, and supporting mediation and alternative dispute resolution in such cases.
The setting out of guiding principles for the conduct of family law proceedings, which are directed at ensuring the best interests of the child are a primary consideration, encouraging mediation – where appropriate – and that as far as possible proceedings are accessible and user friendly.
The Bill also provides for a greater proportion of non-contentious family law matters to be dealt with at Family District Court level, in order to provide local access to the court system and to enable family law issues to be resolved in the simplest and most cost-efficient way, reducing the stress faced by litigants in such cases.
The Family Courts Bill is a key component in the ongoing implementation of the Family Justice Strategy, which is driving reforms to create a more efficient and user-friendly family justice system that puts the family and children at the centre of its work.
This includes:
Ensuring the voice of the child is heard in family law proceedings, in line with a child’s constitutional right, and developing new ways to ensure that this right is upheld. This includes an allocation of €3 million to develop a children’s Court Advocate Pilot Project, and a pilot scheme to fund welfare and voice of the child reports;
Supporting the Judiciary to develop a set of guidelines for the use of welfare reports in family law proceedings;
Reviewing training options across the family justice sector, identifying gaps and opportunities for new provisions;
Improving information provisions for all those accessing the system, including children and young people;
Developing options to provide alternatives to court, including the development of a set of child maintenance guidelines and expansion of the Family Mediation Service through the Legal Aid Board’s private panel of family mediators;
Commissioning research on the operation of the In Camera rule, a draft of which the Minister expects to receive shortly.
Garda Inspectorate Report on Transnational Organised Crime published.
Report acknowledges success of An Garda Síochána in targeting organised crime.
Inspectorate makes a number of recommendations aimed at preventing transnational organised crime, tackling the crime groups that cause most harm in communities, and better supporting the victims of these crimes.
The Garda Síochána Inspectorate’s report – ‘Transnational Organised Crime – A Review of the Structures, Strategies and Processes in the Garda Síochána’, was published today, [Tuesday November 5th, 2024].
The report acknowledges the considerable success, by An Garda Síochána, in targeting high-profile crime groups and seizing large volumes of drugs and other criminal assets. It also makes recommendations to An Garda Síochána;, the Department of Justice, and other agencies, to further address the threat posed and the impact of organised criminal networks.
The Department of Justice has taken a number of steps to support the work of An Garda Síochána in dealing with illegal drug use and organised crime. These include:
Increasing the maximum sentence for conspiracy to murder from 10 years to life in prison to tackle those who direct gangland and drug related crime;
Enacting new laws to criminalise the grooming of children into a life of crime;
Drafting new laws which will provide for the use of facial recognition technology in the investigation of certain drug offences;
Rolling out a support programme to break the link between the gangs and the children they try to recruit;
Signing treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance with the United Arab Emirates to ensure that organised crime gangs can have no hiding place anywhere in the world.
An Garda Síochána is targeting those involved in street-level drug dealing across the country and disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking networks, through ‘Operation Tara‘.
The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) leads in tackling all forms of drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs in Ireland. Since 2019 the GNDOCB have seized approximately €390m worth of drugs, with further seizures this year. Given the global nature of the drugs trade, international law enforcement co-operation is a critical element in the overall response. Significant interceptions of controlled drugs in the last 12 months are a testament to the success of this co-operation.
Upon the commencement of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024, on December 16th the inspection functions of An Garda Síochána Inspectorate will be incorporated within the newly established Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA).
Hardly the work of Banksy, latter that pseudonymous England-based street artist and political activist, whose real name and identity remain, as yet, unconfirmed.
The above 35.56 centimetre (14 inch) high, expletive / salutation has greeted the arrival and departure of those using the new Liberty Square / Slievenamon Road, car park, [aka ‘Checkpoint Charlie’], latter positioned just 20 metres from the Thurles Tourist Office, since June 2021. It appeared prior to the removal of the money wasting, two year old Perspex coated, parking ticket shelter the costings of which remain a closely guarded secret, retained only by Municipal District wasting officialdom.
Former eradicated Perspex coated, parking ticket shelter.
One would have hoped that these two worded expletive could have been removed by Thurles Council, along with the two year old car parking barrier system, or even by the well-meaning ‘Refresh Thurles’ grouping, but, alas, it has gone unnoticed over the past 3.5 years, due to the everyday ‘hussle and bustle’ of a now struggling Thurles town centre market place.
Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris).
Graffiti, seen by some as a form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorized marking of public spaces by individuals or groups, has become a continuing problem here in Thurles and goes unchecked. Could the planting of climbing Hydrangeas (Hydrangea petiolaris) be the answer to this wanton vandalism?
Autumn shade of the Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris).
This charming, fully hardy, self-clinging, climber enjoys full sun to partial shade, but will still thrive even on a north facing wall. In midsummer white lace-cap-style hydrangea flowers cover the plant, before the leaves turn slowly to yellow in autumn. Same grows best in a sheltered position in soils rich in organic matter, reaching some 3.048 metres (10 ft) – 6.96 metres (20 ft) in height.
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