Dr. Eimear Cotter:

On the local authority performance, section 63 of the Environmental Protection Authority Act gives the EPA responsibility for overseeing the environmental performance of local authorities. As part of that, we produce an annual assessment. We have recently redesigned the framework to enable us to do that, focusing more on the environmental outcomes.

Rather than local authorities reporting activities to us, we are looking at the outcomes being achieved in the environment. That framework was developed over the past several years, with extensive engagement with local authorities in doing that and them reporting to us. We publish that assessment every year. In that latest assessment, which was for 2021 and was published at the end of last year - we are working on 2022 - the key finding is that they need to deploy and target their resources more effectively to improve the quality of our air and water. For us, it is about them deploying their existing resources. There is not an organisation in the world that would say it could not do with more resources. For us, priority needs to be given to environmental protection implementation and enforcement of existing legislation. That is about more effectively deploying what they have already. Within that, and with water in particular, we want to see local authorities increase the level of farm inspections and enforcement activity to reduce the impact of agricultural activities on water quality. The latest assessment is for 2021, and I know things have improved since then. However, farm inspections are 43% below where they had been pre-Covid. They need to significantly increase again. A really important part of protecting our water quality from agricultural activity is done through local authority work. Those are the two main recommendations relating to water quality and resourcing.