Ireland’s ambition to move towards the health-based World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines will be challenging, but will have a significantly positive impact on health.
Air quality in Ireland is generally good, however, there are concerning localised issues.
Ireland met all of its EU legal requirements in 2022, but it did not meet the more stringent health-based World Health Organisation (WHO) Air Quality guidelines.
It is estimated that there are approximately 1,300 premature deaths annually in Ireland due to poor air quality from fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
The choices we make in how we heat our homes and how we travel directly impact the quality of the air we breathe.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its annual air quality report ‘Air Quality in Ireland 2022’. The report shows that, while air quality in Ireland is generally good and compares favourably with many of our European neighbours, there are concerning localised issues which lead to poor air quality.
Ireland met EU legal air quality limits in 2022, however it did not meet the more stringent health-based World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines for a number of pollutants including: particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (N02), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3), due mainly to the burning of solid fuel in our towns and villages and traffic in our cities.
Poor air quality has a proven negative impact on people’s health. There are an estimated 1,300 premature deaths in Ireland per year due to particulate matter in our air.
In 2022 air monitoring results from EPA stations across Ireland show that fine particulate matter (PM2.5), mainly from burning solid fuel in our homes, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) mainly from road traffic, remain the main threats to good air quality. High levels of these pollutants are often associated with cold, still weather from late autumn through to early spring, when generally short-term incidents of poor air quality occur.
Launching the report, Dr Micheál Lehane, Director of the EPA’s Office of Radiation Protection & Environmental Monitoring, said: “The EPA’s air quality monitoring has shown that Ireland met all of its EU legal requirements in 2022. However, we did not meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines for health. This highlights the immediate challenge to move towards the WHO air quality guidelines in the Clean Air Strategy. While undoubtably challenging, the significantly positive impacts of clean air on health are clear and the report identifies some of the actions that are necessary to achieve the health-based air quality guidelines.”
The report identifies that using less solid fuel and cleaner fuels to heat our homes, and reducing our use of cars to go to school, work and play; are actions that will contribute towards achieving the WHO guidelines.
The report further identifies the critical role for local authorities in enforcement, implementation of existing plans and investment in infrastructure to encourage cleaner and healthier air quality choices:
Local authorities must provide more resources to increase air enforcement activities and implement the new solid fuel regulations.
Dublin local authorities must fully implement the Dublin Region Air Quality Plan 2021, to improve Nitrogen Dioxide levels in Dublin Region.
Investment in clean public transport infrastructure across the country must be maintained and increased.
More safe footpaths and cycle lanes must be created to continue to increase active travel as a viable and safe alternative to car use and associated nitrogen dioxide emissions.
Mr Pat Byrne, EPA Programme Manager, said: “The localized issues that we see in the 2022 monitoring results impact negatively on air quality and health. Monitoring stations across Ireland recorded high levels of particulate matter associated with burning solid fuels in our towns and villages and high levels of nitrogen dioxide in our larger cities associated with road traffic. We can have immediate impacts on our local air quality by making changes in how we heat our homes and finding alternative ways to travel. These actions which also have positive climate impacts”.
To find out more about how we can improve air quality, read the EPA’s How we can improve the air we breathe infographic or check out the ‘ABC for Cleaner Air’ campaign@ The ABC for Cleaner Air , from the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, which highlights some simple steps we can all make and help reduce pollution from solid fuels.
The Air Quality in Ireland 2022 report is available on the EPA website.
The EPA continually monitors air quality across Ireland and provides the air quality index for health and real-time results online HERE. Results are updated hourly on the website, and people can log on at any time to check whether the current air quality is good, fair or poor.
EPA Calls For Urgent Action To Improve Ireland’s Household & Commercial Waste Segregation & Recycling Performance.
Over two thirds of wastes in general waste bins could have been placed in the recycling or organic waste bins.
Food waste in commercial general waste bins is 30 per cent and in household general bins is 17%.
Plastics in the general waste bins are also significant for households (17%) and businesses (15%).
The rollout of organic waste bins to all houses, apartments, and commercial sectors needs to accelerate without delay.
he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published the latest National Municipal Waste Characterisation Project. The project results show very little change in Ireland’s household and commercial waste management practices since 2018. Irish businesses and householders are still putting the majority of their waste into the wrong bin. Over two thirds of waste in the general waste bins could have been placed in recycling and organic waste bin.
Municipal Waste Characterisation
Food waste is the most common waste in commercial general waste bins (30%) and household general waste bins (17%). Thousands of households and businesses still do not have an organic waste bin and correct food waste segregation cannot be achieved until this is addressed.
Recyclable materials such as plastics, paper, cardboard and metal account for around 24% of the household general waste bin and 37% of the commercial general waste bin.
Urgent action is needed to improve Ireland’s segregation and recycling performance to achieve municipal recycling rate targets and transition to a circular economy. The waste industry needs to do more by providing organic waste bins to all households and commercial premises and support awareness campaigns to make segregation easier.
Commenting on the results, Mr Micheál Lehane, (Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Sustainability), said “The results of the latest municipal waste characterisation are disappointing. Currently businesses and householders are putting recyclables, food waste and packaging waste into our general bins. This is a lost opportunity. Organic waste bins need to be rolled out urgently to businesses and households currently without this service. Implementation of the new commercial waste regulations is needed without delay.”
Access to recycling infrastructure, such as civic amenity sites and bring banks, needs to be made easier for householders to support segregation of special, bulky and hazardous wastes.
The rollout of organic waste bins to houses, apartments, and commercial sectors needs be enforced to ensure waste collectors are providing the same level of service to customers.
Mr Warren Phelan, (Programme Manager of the EPA’s Circular Economy Programme) noted: “Our recycling targets and transition to a circular economy are currently off track. There are significant opportunities to divert recyclable materials from the general waste bin, but householders and the commercial sector need more support from the waste industry to make it easier to segregate their waste correctly. Targeted awareness campaigns on segregation and focused enforcement activities are also needed.”
Further information on what is in our household and commercial bins is available on the EPA Website HERE.
More than 300 farmers are today staging a protest outside the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party think-in in County Tipperary over proposed changes to a nitrates derogation and plans to hold further protests at this week’s Fine Gael meeting in Limerick and at the National Ploughing Championships.
Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) gather to protest at Horse and Jockey Hotel, outside Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Picture: G. Willoughby.
Members of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) have gathered at the Horse and Jockey Hotel, outside Thurles, Co. Tipperary, to call on Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to oppose an EU Commission decision to introduce a tightening of rules around the spreading of manure from January next.
Laois farmer and IFA Presidential candidate Mr Francie Gorman said the Minister and his Department were forcing farmers to the brink with the new rules, which he claims would force farmers to reduce their herd and acquire land to abide by the proposed increased limits.
“Farmers will not accept anything less that the nitrates decision being reversed and a total review of banding. Both of these moves combined will have a devastating impact on the smaller family farm, especially fresh milk producers,” commented Mr Gorman.
He continued, “As I informed the Minister at yesterday’s International Sheepdog Trials in Blessington, County Wicklow, the IFA has put forward a credible solution that will help Ireland meet its targets under the nitrates directive and avoid the inevitable loss of jobs and income that the new rules will bring about, if introduced in their current form. The situation is being exacerbated by the fact that an early decision on the CAP strategic plan has led to payments not being made on time.”
Mr Gorman said IFA members will step up their protests unless the Government changes its approach. “We will bring our protest with even greater numbers to the Fine Gael think-in on Friday in Limerick, and we will continue our opposition to the proposed rules at the National Ploughing Championships and at Department of Agriculture offices across the country until such time as the Minister starts fighting for our sector and the 170,000 people that it employs,” he concluded.
From today, September 1st, we can expect the commencement of overall colder weather, with mornings growing that bit darker, as autumn (The ‘Fall’, associated with the falling of leaves), once again makes its annual appearance.
An Autumn Walk.
Before the 16th century, ‘harvest’ was the term usually used to refer to autumn, and for obvious reasons. The name ‘backend’, was once a common name used in rural areas for the autumn season and this name also has largely been eroded.
Here in Ireland, most people will mourn the loss of the warmer summer months, while others will find themselves forced into even greater poverty, in their efforts to put a warm fire in the grate, and the emergence/arrival of unwelcome, overpriced, electrical bills, from greedy, unsupervised, electrical service companies, which our present Irish government refuses to control.
Autumn starts in September, but the date will depend on whether you follow the astronomical calendar or the meteorological calendar.
Meteorological Calendar: The meteorological calendar splits our year into four seasons, with each season made up of three months. Same meteorological seasons are defined as spring (March, April, May), summer (June, July, August), autumn (September, October, November), and winter (December, January, February). Thus, if you follow the meteorological season, autumn begins today, September 1st and will end on November 30th.
Astronomical Calendar: The astronomical calendar on the other hand, is based on the position of the Sun, in relation to our Earth’s rotational axis. In this case our autumn will starts on September 23rd next and will ends on December 22nd; leaving us with less than one month left of our summer sun, before we once again are forced to don our overcoats. The autumn equinox marks the start of the season, so it will take place on September 23rd 2023, at 6:50am. During the autumn equinox, day and night are of roughly of equal length before the nights become increasingly longer than the days, until the spring equinox due Wed, March 20th, 2024, at 3:06am, when the pattern is slowly reversed with the weather slowly, but surely, warming up once again.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) at the end of May this year, 2023, published their Census 2022 Summary Results, which details the population changes at a national level since April 2016. They have also broken down the results on a county by county level, highlighting some of the main changes, and a full list of all county press releases are available, including county Tipperary, HERE.
Summary Results for Co. Tipperary. Census 2022 shows that the population of Tipperary grew by 5% to 167,895, which concludes that the number of people in the county rose by 8,342 between April 2016 and April 2022. Over the same period, Ireland’s population grew by 8% from 4,761,865 to 5,149,139.
Tipperary Population – Males and Females. Of Tipperary’s population, 84,256 were female and 83,639 were male, which means there were 99 males for every 100 females. In Ireland, overall, there were 2,604,590 females and 2,544,549 males or 98 males for every 100 females.
Population by Age. The average age of Tipperary’s population in April 2022 was 40.3 years, compared with 38.6 years in April 2016. Nationally, the average age of the population was 38.8, up from 37.4 in April 2016.
The number of people aged 65 and over continues to grow. This age group increased by 20% to 29,356 in Tipperary, and by 22% to 776,315 at a national level since 2016.
Dual Irish Citizens. In Tipperary, the number of dual Irish citizens increased from 2,329 to 3,904, while non-Irish citizens accounted for 9% of the county’s population. Nationally, dual Irish citizenship increased by 63% from 104,784 to 170,597 people and non-Irish citizens made up 12% of the population.
Divorce and Separations The proportion of separated and divorced people in Tipperary remained steady at 7% of the population (aged 15 and over), compared to 6% in 2016. The national comparison was 6% in both 2022 and 2016.
Health. In 2022, 83% of people in Tipperary stated that their health was good or very good, compared with 87% in 2016. This is a similar trend to the national figures, which also showed a 4% decrease in the good/very good categories, from 87% to 83%.
Irish Speakers. The number of people (aged three and over) who stated that they could speak Irish in Tipperary was 66,003 compared with 65,391 in 2016. Within this figure 1,258 said they spoke Irish daily while 3,540 spoke Irish weekly. Nationally, 1,873,997 people stated they were able to speak Irish, with 71,968 speaking Irish daily and 115,065 speaking it weekly.
Employment. There were 73,207 people (aged 15 and over) at work in Tipperary, an increase of 9,735 people (+15%) between 2016 and 2022. Nationally, there were 313,656 additional people (+16%) at work.
Working From Home. In Tipperary, 17,665 people (aged 15 and over) worked from home at least one day a week in 2022. This represented 24% of the workforce. The national figure was 32%.
Childcare. This was a new question for Census 2022. There were 33,286 children aged 15 and under in Tipperary in April 2022. Of these, 12,173 (37%) were in childcare, compared with 33%nationally.
Tenure. In 2022, in Tipperary 69% of households owned their own home, with a further 24% renting. This compared with 66% of households owning their home nationally and 28% renting.
Housing Stock.
Between April 2016 and April 2022, housing stock in the county grew by 2% from 69,106 to 70,608. The number of vacant dwellings decreased by 15% from 7,493 to 6,344 and the number of holiday homes rose by 8% from 1,009 to 1,093. Nationally, the housing stock grew by more than 5% from 2,003,645 to 2,112,121. The number of vacant dwellings fell by almost 20,000 (-11%) to 163,433 and the number of holiday homes rose by 8% from 62,148 to 66,956.
It is important to note that a dwelling classified as vacant for census purposes does not necessarily imply that it is available for re-use. Census vacancy is essentially a point in time measure which may be different to other reported measures of vacancy which may focus more on longer term vacancy. For more information on the census definition of vacancy, please see Editor’s Notes below.
Housing Tenure (Owners and Renters). In April 2022, 43,024 of homes were owner-occupied in Tipperary, compared with 42,030 in April 2016. The number of homes owned with a mortgage or loan fell by 8% from 17,616 to 16,256 since Census 2016 while the number of homes owned outright (without a loan or mortgage) increased by 10%, from 24,414 to 26,768. Homes rented from private landlords showed a 6% increase from 7,894 to 8,336. Nationally, 66% of homes were owner occupied. Some 531,207 homes were owned with a mortgage or loan, while almost 680,000 homes were owned without a mortgage or loan, which was up 11% from 2016. More than 330,000 homes were rented from a private landlord, an increase of 7% since 2016.
There was a significant increase of 83% (up to almost 17,000 households) in the number of over 65s renting from a private landlord in the State. In Tipperary, the number of homes rented in the 65 and over age group was 502 (which was a 92% increase). In the 60 to 64 age group, it was up 83% compared with 69% nationally.
Census 2022 shows that by the age of 36, more than half of householders in Tipperary owned their own home (with or without a mortgage or loan). Nationally this age was 36. This age, which marks the changeover between home ownership and renting, has been increasing over time, up from 26 years in 1991, 27 years in 2002, 28 years in 2006, 32 years in 2011, and 35 years in 2016. Rent Increases
Renters have continued to face large increases in the amount of rent they pay. Between the 2016 and 2022 censuses, the average weekly rent paid to a private landlord in Tipperary in April 2022 was €161, which was a 30% increase on 2016. The average weekly rent paid to a private landlord (at national level) rose to €273, up €73 (37%). This was more than double the rate of increase (17%) between 2011 and 2016.
Vacancy. Many properties classed as vacant in the census may only be vacant for a short period of time and for a wide variety of reasons including homes for sale, rent, new build or renovation, owner in a nursing home, etc. However, there were more than 2,242 dwellings classed as vacant both in the 2016 and 2022 censuses in Tipperary, which could be an indication of a longer-term vacancy status. Nationally the figure was just under 48,000.
The Census definition of a vacant dwelling is a point in time indicator taken on Census night which in these cases means that the dwellings were vacant on the census nights for both 2016 and 2022. (For more information on the census definition of vacancy, please see the Editors notes below). Data from New Household Questions
Census 2022 included new household questions on the number of working smoke alarms and how we use renewable energy sources in our homes. Tipperary had 3,145 homes with no smoke alarms. Homes with solar panels amounted to 4,220 which was 7% of occupied dwellings in the county. Nationally, almost 72,000 homes had no smoke alarms and 119,300 or 6% of occupied homes had solar panels fitted.
Recent Comments