Ms Laura Burke:

I have a brief opening statement. Then I can touch on the wide range of issues the Vice Chairman raised.
First, I thank the committee for the opportunity to attend this joint Oireachtas committee meeting. As the Vice Chairman stated, I am joined by colleagues from the EPA to assist in the work of the committee today.
The Environmental Protection Agency's mission is to protect and improve the environment as a valuable asset for the people of Ireland and to protect our people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation and pollution. The ultimate objective is a clean, healthy and well-protected environment supporting a sustainable society and economy.
The EPA performs a wide range of statutory functions for the protection of the environment. In May 2011, an independent external review of the agency was completed and presented to the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Hogan. The report of the review group stated that the EPA overall has provided considerable benefit for Ireland's environment for the health and well-being of its people and that the environmental expertise within the EPA is a significant national resource. I take this opportunity to recognise the contribution of the staff of the agency in delivering on our objectives.
We have already provided the committee with an opening statement and I will now give a brief overview of the Environmental Protection Agency's role, duties and responsibilities, and information on the monitoring and enforcement of licences at industrial facilities.
First, on the merger of the EPA and the RPII, as part of the Government's public sector reform plan, a decision was made in October 2012 to merge the EPA and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland. Legislation was passed in 2014 to give effect to the merger and the EPA's newly established Office of Radiological Protection commenced operation on 1 August this year. The merger was completed on time and on budget. With regard to the benefits of the merger, I suppose the first point to recognise is that we are only a couple of months in to the merger. Dr. Ann McGarry is here, and she can discuss further particular radiological protection issues. To date, we have merged the administrative functions of the radiological protection institute and the EPA so that we now have one corporate resources function, and we are investigating opportunities for technical and scientific synergies of the two organisations, and now, I suppose, the Office of Radiological Protection and other offices, for example, in areas such as our monitoring programmes and emergency response. We will be progressing these in the coming months.
On licensing and enforcement, the EPA has a key role in licensing facilities with the potential for significant environmental pollution to ensure that their emissions do not endanger human health or harm the environment. In 2013, we issued 176 licences and over 700 technical amendments. We also carried out over 1,300 industrial and waste site visits, 240 urban wastewater site visits and 55 drinking water site visits. Ten prosecutions were heard in the district court and two in the higher courts in 2013.
With regard to domestic wastewater treatment systems, the national compliance rate for year one inspections was 52%. The most common reasons for failure of an inspection related to operation-maintenance and-or de-sludging issues.
On sustainable use of resources, in 2013 the national waste prevention programme, led by the EPA, continued to deliver substantive results in preventing and minimising waste though EPA's BeGreenresource efficiency programmes. The 2013 results from the BeGreenprogrammes, such as Green Business, Green Hospitality and Green Healthcare, identified economic savings in excess of €7 million, with further potential savings of €7 million from an investment by the EPA of circa €1.2 million. A major new project, Smarter Farming, was initiated in 2012 in collaboration with the Irish Farmers' Association.
On climate change, greenhouse gas projections released by the EPA in 2014 indicate that Ireland faces considerable challenges in moving to a low carbon economy. Under the best case scenario, greenhouse gas emissions will remain relatively static up to 2020. As a result, emissions in 2020 will be 5% to 12% below 2005 levels and will not meet the 20% reduction target.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, synthesise report, which has just been released, indicates, as the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, stated, that there is no more room for debate about whether climate change is happening or not. It is happening. The influence is clear, it is human activity and action needs to be taken urgently. The EPA runs a significant communications programme to highlight climate change issues with public issues. In fact, we are privileged to have one of the authors of the IPCC report in the Mansion House in Dublin tomorrow night looking at adaptation and the adaptation issues associated with climate change. We would be delighted if any of the members of the committee could come and here at first hand what the IPCC is saying with regard to climate change and climate change adaptation.
On clean air, the EPA's report on air quality in 2013 found that air quality in Ireland continues to be good and compares favourably with other EU member states. In 2013, the EPA in conjunction with the HSE, Met Éireann and Department of the Environment Community and Local Government, launched an air quality index for health, which is available on the EPA website.
On water quality, clean, healthy and well-protected water is essential to maintain viable and vibrant communities across all areas of Ireland, urban and rural. The EPA's drinking water report for 2012 shows that public water supplies have improved year on year since the EPA created a remedial action list in 2008. The EPA issued 16 directions this year, with five of these relating to supplies in Roscommon. The EPA has also reiterated the need for Irish Water to develop a national lead strategy which has regard to advice previously published by the EPA on lead. I will talk a little more about Uisce Éireann in a moment. With regard to bathing water quality, in 2013, 97% of bathing water complied with the EU mandatory standards.
On research, following public consultation in 2013, a 24-month research programme on fracking is underway. The research programme has been designed to produce the scientific basis, which will assist regulators – both North and South – in making an informed decision about whether it is environmentally safe to allow fracking. No fracking will take place as part of this research.
With regard to our annual accounts, since the EPA was established in 1993, the Comptroller and Auditor General's office has issued a clean audit report in respect of each year's financial statements. The Environmental Protection Agency's 2013 accounts were signed off by the Comptroller and Auditor General on 30 September this year. The total budget available to the EPA in 2013 was €59.5 million.
The EPA has key roles in environmental regulation, provision of knowledge and advocacy for the environment. The economic recession continues to result in cuts right across the public sector, including the EPA. Our staff and financial resources are reduced; meanwhile, we face new challenges and have taken on new responsibilities. However, we will continue to deliver the valuable societal outcomes for which we are recognised.

The Vice Chairman specifically asked for our response on Uisce Éireann. The first thing to clarify is that the EPA has no role in water charges or economic regulation of Irish Water. The EPA is the quality regulator with regard to drinking water and urban wastewater. I wish to put water and water quality into context. The EPA has published a drinking water report every year since its establishment more than 20 years ago. In 2007 the EPA was appointed as a regulator for drinking water and in effect regulated the 34 local authorities. At this time the EPA identified E. coli as a key priority. To address this we targeted a national programme of installation of chlorine monitors in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the local authorities. There has been a 92% reduction in E. coli detection as a result.

The EPA also identified drinking water schemes across the country requiring investment which resulted in the remedial action list I mentioned earlier. The number of schemes on the list has reduced year-on-year although more investment is needed in this area. The primary role of the EPA is to ensure that drinking water supplied by Irish Water to its customers is clean and wholesome, and meets the standards set out in the European Union regulations.

Drinking water priorities include reducing the number of boil notices affecting 23,000 people, which is unacceptable, as we have stated previously. We also need to upgrade drinking water schemes. There are 126 schemes on the remedial action list and although that is reduced from 339 in 2008 we still need the remaining ones to be addressed. Other priorities are the elimination of lead pipes and the introduction of water safety plans. Seven water safety plans have been completed with a further 45 in preparation.

The EPA has published urban wastewater reports since its establishment. In 2007 a licensing regime for wastewater discharges controlled by the local authorities was introduced as a result of a European court judgment against Ireland. The EPA is the licensing authority for urban wastewater discharges and has issued 370 licenses and 520 certificates of authorisation. We have consistently highlighted the need for further investment in wastewater infrastructure to protect our rivers and beaches, and the economic activities that depend on clean water. Some 94% of Ireland's urban wastewater receives secondary treatment which is three times more than a decade ago. Some 71% of secondary treatment plants met main effluent quality and sampling standards in 2013, a 2% improvement on the previous year. However, raw sewage is still discharged from 44 areas in Ireland.

As I mentioned, the EPA is the quality regulator for Irish Water. We also recognise that Irish Water was only established in January of this year whereas the infrastructural investment and operational issues I have highlighted existed for many years prior to this. In addition, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report identified an historical underinvestment of €5 billion in drinking water and urban wastewater. Irish Water needs to develop a pathway to the satisfaction of the EPA towards the achievement of compliance with national and European legislation on water, in particular the 1998 drinking water directive and the 1991 urban wastewater treatment directive, and both short-term and longer-term actions are needed.

We also recognise that it is a period of transition in moving from 34 local authorities responsible for water to one utility. Ultimately, we see the benefit of having a single body looking at national issues - for example, as we stated earlier having a national approach to lead in water.

We have had extensive engagement with Irish Water and the Commission for Energy Regulation in order to ensure appropriate treatment of all drinking water supplies and urban wastewater. We will be reporting on the performance of Irish Water through our urban wastewater and drinking water reports in future. For example, the EPA collates data from more than 200,000 drinking water samples to determine compliance with regulations. So we have reported in the past and we will report in future on that.

I hope I have already answered the Vice Chairman's question on fracking and the research we are doing there. We would be happy to answer in more detail if he wishes. I might ask Mr. O'Leary to talk about the enforcement approach with regard to prosecutions and Dr. McGarry on Hinkley Point.