Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Kieran O'Donnell for raising this issue with me. A number of important EU directives seek to protect our environment from the harmful effects of air pollution and maintain the quality of the air we breathe. The current air quality standards are contained in the clean air for Europe directive of 2008 and the fourth daughter directive of the European Union. The directives include rules governing how member states should monitor, assess and manage ambient air quality. The EPA is tasked with co-ordinating and managing the monitoring programme in Ireland. Under the directives, the EU member states must designate zones for managing air quality. For Ireland, four zones have been defined in the air quality standards regulations of 2011. The zones in place in Ireland in 2017 are zone A, comprising the Dublin conurbation, zone B, comprising the Cork conurbation, zone C, comprising 23 large towns with a population of more than 15,000, and zone D, the remaining area of Ireland. Ireland currently has a network of 31 monitoring stations which measure levels of air pollutants in the four zones. This information is delivered to the public nearly in real time at www.airquality.epa.ie. The numbers and locations of the monitoring equipment for each pollutant are determined by the requirements of the directives for ambient air monitoring in each zone. I am sure the Senator is already aware that there is one such monitoring station in County Limerick, located in the Shannon Estuary at Askeaton.

Following a comprehensive review of the current status of ambient air quality monitoring in Ireland, the EPA is developing a new national ambient air quality monitoring programme under section 65 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act. This process has included a review of the adequacy of the current network for determining compliance with the European and national standards for air quality and for the provision of information to the public about local air quality. I am not satisfied with the network of 31 monitoring stations in meeting that need. As I mentioned, we already have a monitoring station in Askeaton in Limerick. There is a proposed revised EPA monitoring programme. It proposes an additional monitoring site in Limerick city and an indicative monitoring site in Abbeyfeale. I welcome the proposed expansion of the network. It is important to remember that this is about providing the public, in particular, with information regarding local air quality.This is of particular significance given the growing evidence that air pollution is more damaging to human health than previously understood, both in terms of thresholds above which health impacts can occur and in the range of those impacts. As I have said on numerous occasions, poor air quality in Ireland directly results in the deaths of four people every day and many more people end up presenting in hospitals, ending up on trolleys in accident and emergency departments and having long stays in hospital, so by improving air quality we can have a direct impact on the health of our nation and on the congestion we see in the regional hospital in Limerick and hospitals right across this country. What this network is about is looking at air quality, not just from one particular plant, but right across the city of Limerick. I refer to diesel engines, which are a huge problem in Dublin, and at other sources of pollution. We can monitor those over time.

In regard to individual premises, there is a specific licensing regime in place which is operated and managed by the EPA and there would be specific quite rigid requirements in regard to that. The EPA recently issued information regarding the air quality from some plants in the region of Limerick which highlighted problems with their emissions. It may not necessarily be the one that is closest to home either. The EPA is quite transparent in regard to this and it is quite critical of operations where they do not meet the standards required. It puts all that into the public domain. I have confidence in the monitoring regime the EPA has in place in regard to all the large emitters across the country but this network is not about what goes into the air but the air we breathe on a day-to-day basis. We are quite lucky in that we meet and comply with EU standards on air quality. However, if we look at the international World Health Organization standards, we are not meeting those. The best way to improve our standard of air quality is to be able to monitor and measure that and see the progress over time.

I do not think we can do that with 31 stations which is why I have directed the EPA to increase the number. It will also have a knock-on benefit of being able to give an accurate reflection in regard to pollen count. People with allergies will be able to know, based on actual predictions, about the pollen count and the read in Ireland. Up to now, we were basing it on projections based on data collected in the UK.