Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator O'Donnell for raising this issue. I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, who is unavailable.

The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is the independent statutory body responsible for protecting the environment in Ireland.The agency performs a wide range of statutory functions in fulfilment of its mandate. These include the agency having 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. The agency is responsible for issuing industrial emission directive licences, integrated pollution and control, IPC, licences, waste licences, wastewater discharge authorisations, genetically modified organisms authorisations and radiological protection licences.

The EPA is responsible for the licence and enforcement of large industrial plants listed in the first schedule of the EPA Act 1992, as amended. The Irish Cement site in Mungret falls into this category and is covered by the industrial emissions directive, Directive 2010/75/EU. This directive specifies the emission limit values that apply on the basis of the best available techniques. Conditions implementing the directive’s requirements are written into the industrial emissions licences granted by the EPA. Details of current licensed facilities and applications for new and revised licences are available on the agency’s website.

I believe it would be useful for me to outline briefly the application process in place for applications for industrial emissions licences, to emphasise the rigour of the process, and the wide scope for public participation in the decision making processes in each case. Before an application is even made, applicants are required to publish a notice in a local newspaper and to erect a site notice of their intentions. Then, on making the actual application, the applicant must pay the required fee and provide all the necessary documentation to the agency. Within eight weeks of the application, the agency is required to publish how it proposes to determine an application. This stage allows any person or body to make an objection within 28 days, and any such person or body is furthermore entitled to request an oral hearing. Only then, having considered the application and all objection submissions received, is a final decision on the licence application made by the agency. This decision is published on the agency’s website and any person may then apply to the High Court and seek a judicial review of the validity of the decision.

When operable, such facilities are then subject to ongoing monitoring by the agency. The agency also encourages public participation in its ongoing regulatory and enforcement activities by welcoming reports from the public of any negative environmental impacts arising from facilities that it licenses, including odours, noise or water pollution. The Mungret facility is currently the subject of a licence review. This process allows the public to view documents for this application or to make a submission to the EPA. The EPA licence reference number for Irish Cement site located in Mungret, Limerick is No. P0030-05, should anyone wish to raise concerns. The EPA operates in a fully transparent and open manner and publishes comprehensive details about its activities. Further information is available to the public on www.epa.ie. The Minister is precluded under legislation from interfering in the agency’s licensing decision making process. The Minister believes that the agency has a sufficient range of powers under the existing legislative code to adequately regulate and monitor such facilities in order to protect the environment and human health, ensure that key standards are met and enable the public, particularly local communities, to input should any issues relating to the day-to-day operation of any facility emerge.