Carried out over 1,200 inspections of industrial and waste facilities, along with 205 urban waste water and 154 drinking water site inspections.
Obtained 19 convictions for environmental offences.
Monitored more than 2,500 waterbodies – with data showing no significant improvement in water quality – largely caused by high nutrient levels.
Provided real time data at 113 air quality monitoring stations– with particulate matter from solid fuel combustion and nitrogen dioxide from traffic causing poor air quality.
Launched new maps with up to 3 days forecast of Air Quality Index for Health.
In its 2023 Highlights the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showcases its work in addressing environmental challenges across Ireland.
Publishing the review, EPA Director General, Ms Laura Burke said: “2023 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the EPA’s establishment. While our remit has grown, the core of what we do remains the same – we regulate activities that have the potential for significant pollution. We produce timely, reliable, trustworthy data on Ireland’s environment. And we work with others to protect and preserve our environment”.
EPA highlights of 2023 include:
Regulation
Since its establishment 30 years ago, the EPA has assessed thousands of licence applications and each year performs more than a thousand inspections of licensed sites. While the majority have operated well and in accordance with their licence, a small number have not and in those cases the EPA has exercised its full range of enforcement powers, with 19 convictions in 2023 alone. In 2023, the EPA also launched LEAP online, enabling the public to access licence, inspection, and licensee information like never before.
Knowledge
The EPA provides independent scientific evidence to inform decision making. On water quality, the EPA has monitored Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries for decades, with our latest data showing no significant improvement nationally in the biological quality of rivers and lakes, which is largely attributable to excess nitrogen and phosphorous.
New forecast maps launched in 2023 predict air quality for up to three days ahead, using real-time data from 113 ambient air quality monitoring stations nationwide. While air quality in Ireland is generally good, there are concerning localised issues from particulate matter due to burning solid fuel, and nitrogen dioxide from traffic.
Waste generation continues to rise, and recycling rates are not keeping pace. Ireland remains overly reliant on unpredictable export markets for significant quantities of waste sent abroad.
EPA research shows the Irish public overwhelmingly believe climate change is already affecting Ireland, and they support climate action. While our data shows a small reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, emissions aren’t declining fast enough to meet Ireland’s commitments for 2030 and beyond.
Working with others
In 2023 the EPA partnered with a range of organisations to support the protection of Ireland’s environment. Collaborations with An Taisce and the city councils of Cork and Galway helped grow citizen science initiatives aiming to improve air quality. And coinciding with its 30th anniversary, the EPA kicked off a novel partnership with the National Library of Ireland to creatively document Ireland’s environment.
Concluding, Ms Burke said: “Three decades on from its establishment, the EPA’s role to protect, improve and restore Ireland’s environment, through regulation, scientific knowledge and working with others, is more relevant than ever”.
Further information is available in the EPA’s Review 2023, HERE
Early this morning two road sweepers made an appearence on Kickham Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
The big road sweeper machine passed up and down the street at least 3 times, same gathering up the gravel it failed to suck up on Friday last.
New street sweeper machine continues to be operated, while unable to suck up filth and dirt. The waste of taxpayer’s money, by Tipp. Co. Co. continues without any reduction in intensity or strength. Pic: G. Willoughby 29th January 2024.
The small road sweeper machine with the worn out left hand brush was taxed with sweeping the footpaths; in an attempt to remove the gravel flung at the fronts of homes of street residents and unsuspecting pedestrians, by the daily heavy traffic.
You will note that this editor didn’t use the word ‘cleaned’ in any of the above text, since this small machine only collected and left a ridge of dirt and filth behind it; same neatly piled in the centre of the footpaths. (See image shown above).
Something we have learned over the years here in Co. Tipperary is that politicians, councillors and their officials are chosen mainly by their ability to provide spin. Such silence is also displayed by our local newspapers and some local radio broadcasters; latter who are supposed to generate a certain power and remain important to our democracy, but no longer can be perceived as promoters of community responsibility.
In the interests of openness and transparency, Tipperary Co. Council senior officials have been notified.
All 4 major Supermarkets at least, here in Thurles, have been busy preparing for the launch of the new Deposit Return Scheme, same expected to commence with effect from Thursday February 1st next, 2024.
This new scheme will see consumers pay a small deposit on drinks contained in plastic bottles and cans. However, this added purchase cost will be given back, when consumers return their drink containers to these participating supermarkets.
Drinks containers with an individual Re-Turn Logo are expected to start appearing in shops from February 1st; however, only cans and plastic bottles featuring that logo will be accepted into these now ready to roll reverse vending machines.
With this long awaited new venture about to be launched, it is hoped that the scheme will help Ireland to reach its recycling goals; part of the current EU single-use plastics directive.
A Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) representative has informed Nenagh Municipal District councillors, last week, of a major decline in the water quality of Tipperary’s rivers and streams.
Ms Catherine Seale-Duggan the newly appointed Community Water Officer with LAWPRO has warned that the quality of watercourses in Co. Tipperary has dropped substantially and worryingly over the past 10 years.
State of River Suir just 100 meters from Barry’s bridge in Thurles Town centre. Pic: G. Willoughby, 2019.
Ms Seale-Duggan confirmed that only 1/3 of rivers in Tipperary were in the category of “Good and High Status”, whereas ten years previously almost 2/3 of the counties rivers fell into that same stated category. She stated that the Nenagh River (Irish: An Ghaothach) which rises in the Silvermine Mountains in Co.Tipperary, and flows east of Nenagh into Lough Derg, north of Dromineer village, falls into the “Moderate Status” category.
River Suir at Barry’s Bridge, Thurles town centre. Pic: G. Willoughby, 2021.
“What we are aiming for in the case of every river and stream,is the Good and High Status”, Ms Seale-Duggan stated, “We are targeting those areas where the water quality is adversely impacted, and agriculture is part of that concern and focus. Inspectors will visit farms and look at opportunities to stop pollutants getting into rivers and streams”.
This work will now be heavily subsidised through a €60 million project and advisers from Dairy Co-ops will be engaging directly with farmers. Alas, the farming community will continue in the mindset of “I have rights” and no indigenous mindset showing that “I have obligations” in serving present and future generations, not to mention the health of the very planet itself. Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP) is also working to reduce the loss of nutrients in farms and to prevent nutrients from these same areas, gaining access to watercourses and polluting them. According to ICBF data, accurate up to June 1, 2023 the county with the second-largest dairy herd is Co. Tipperary with 194,018 cows, which is an increase of 59,259 head, since 2013. (Largest is Co. Cork). There is a difference of 69,544 head of cattle, between Co. Tipperary and Co Kilkenny, latter in third place on ICBP’s list.
We hope that Ms Catherine Seale-Duggan, the newly appointed Community Water Officer with LAWPRO, has better success with Municipal District officials than we had.
The evidence is clear: Climate change is happening. Immediate and sustained actions are likely to have widespread benefits.
Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment is the first comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the state of knowledge of climate change in Ireland.
We are living in and experiencing a changing climate. In line with global trends, 16 of the 20 warmest years in Ireland have occurred since 1990.
More action is needed to meet Ireland’s legally binding emissions targets including large-scale and immediate emissions reductions across the energy system, which is currently heavily dependent (86%) on fossil fuels.
Ireland needs to be resilient to ongoing and future climate change impacts. Implementation of climate adaptation measures is currently too slow and fragmented.
Immediate and sustained transformative mitigation and adaptation actions are likely to yield substantial benefits for health, wellbeing and biodiversity in Ireland, while reducing vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published Ireland’s first Climate Change Assessment Report (ICCA). This major scientific assessment serves to complement and localise the global assessments undertaken by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its findings build upon these assessments and add important local and national context.
Undertaken by leading researchers, this assessment is based on scientific research and observations in Ireland, linked to EU and global analyses. It was led by the Environmental Protection Agency, funded by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, with additional funding by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, and the Department of Transport.
Welcoming the report Ms Laura Burke, (EPA Director General), said: “Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment represents a major contribution to our understanding of the impacts and challenges experienced and posed by climate change in Ireland. The Assessment provides a picture of where Ireland is, in its response the climate emergency. It provides insights as to the scale of the challenge for Ireland to become climate neutral and climate resilient. It reinforces the need for Ireland to pick up the pace of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to our changed and future climate”.
Ms Burke further added: “If we can reach net zero global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, then many of the key components of the climate system, such as temperature and precipitation, would stabilise within the lifetime of many of today’s younger citizens and to the benefit of all of society”.
Key findings:
Human activity has resulted in widespread and rapid changes in climate which are already impacting us all today.
The future climate is in our collective hands. Halting warming globally and in Ireland, requires rapidly reaching at least net-zero carbon dioxide emissions and substantially cutting other greenhouse gas emissions. Every action matters: with every additional increment of warming, impacts for Ireland will increase substantially.
Having peaked in 2001, Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions have reduced in all sectors except agriculture. However, Ireland currently emits more greenhouse gases per person than the EU average. A legal basis for deep, rapid and sustained national emissions cuts now exists, although current policy and action remain insufficient to meet these aims. The pathway forward is clearer for energy, transport and the built environment than for agriculture and land use. For all sectors there are many challenges to overcome.
Ireland needs to be resilient to ongoing and future climate change impacts. This requires increased focus upon and investment in adaptation that can protect us from future climatic impacts. Current implementation of adaptation is too slow and fragmented. Doing better requires financing, working with people and nature, monitoring and evaluating outcomes, and increasing public and private sector involvement.
Effective and just transformative actions will have mitigation and adaptation benefits and bring broader benefits for health, wellbeing, nature and sustainable economic development. The state has a central role to play in enabling the necessary transformations, supported through action across society. Decisions taken this decade will reverberate for generations to come.
Commenting on the assessment, Ms Mary Frances Rochford, (Programme Manager) said: “Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment is a major resource for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, research funders and the public. It points to how and where the science can be improved through further investments in innovation, in research and in systematic observations. The EPA, with partners, will continue to focus on addressing these knowledge gaps to inform and support effective climate action”.
Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment Report is available on the EPA website, VIEW HERE.
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