Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, to the House.

Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House.Today I am raising the issue of the licensing of heavy industries, in particular the licence application made to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, by Irish Cement with regard to its facility in Mungret in my own constituency of Limerick City. The context is that Mungret is now a highly built-up residential area, unlike other locations in the country. A public meeting was held by the group Limerick Against Pollution in the South Court Hotel last Friday night at 7.30 p.m. More than 300 people across all age groups attended. It was a very representative group. These are decent, ordinary people who are worried about the implications of the licence which Irish Cement is seeking in order to convert the Mungret plant from running on fossil fuels to alternative fuels. This involves, in layman's terms, the burning of tyres. It will effectively use an existing kiln, which is over 35 years old and which is currently being fired by fossil fuels, to burn tyres.

I want to raise a couple of points. Irish Cement is looking at burning 90,000 tonnes per annum. There is a move away from fossil fuels as a result of carbon credits and so on, however the question is whether what is being proposed is safer or less safe. There has been very little engagement from Irish Cement. I personally made contact with it to encourage it to attend the public meeting last Friday night. It declined. There has been some engagement, but not enough. From speaking to residents in the area and, more recently, calling to their homes and meeting them, I know that there is a distinct lack of trust among the public in the area as regards what is happening with the Irish Cement plant. There is an issue with what residents regard as blow-outs, although Irish Cement say they are not blow-outs. However, from speaking to people, they are. There are concerns about the way in which the plant is designed. People's cars are regularly covered with lime and so forth. There is a worry. There are three new schools in the area. There are many young families and an awful lot of houses which have been built very near the Irish Cement plant.

How does the Minister intend to regulate these heavy industries in light of environmental concerns? In respect of the Irish Cement plant more particularly, the council has granted planning permission for the physical storage structure. However, the operation of the alternative fuels incinerator is licensed by the EPA. The application is currently before the EPA. It is due to issue a draft response on 16 May. That may change. I encourage people in the area to make submissions. The question I really want answered is how is it intended to regulate in this area?

I brought this issue up previously and the Minister agreed to put extra air monitoring locations into operation, one of which was to be in Mungret. There is a need for many more. The outputs from that particular location for the last three months of last year were analysed and the analysis showed spikes. People need assurance that this area will be properly regulated. There is a strong need for the EPA to license activities before applications for physical structures are made to the council. The council should not be able to grant permission if it has any environmental concerns. The Minister of State might deal with the general point but also comment on the specific licence application Irish Cement has before the EPA. People in the area have grave concerns that what is being proposed will be more harmful to health. This is about public health and ensuring that Government policy promotes public health. We must avoid a situation in which seeking to reduce the use of fossil fuels results in unintended consequences from the burning of alternative fuels.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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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.

Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State believes the agency has sufficient powers to adequately regulate and monitor such facilities. I believe that is not being done by the EPA, certainly not in terms of the Irish Cement site in Limerick. An emissions monitoring service has only recently been installed in the Mungret area. That should have been in a long time ago.

I want to quickly address three elements. First, I ask that Irish Cement now engage properly with the residents living in the area on this licence. It is the minimum they require and should be in the form of a public meeting to address people's concerns and deal with the lack of trust the public in the greater Mungret, Dooradoyle and Raheen area have in what is happening in Irish Cement. Second, I ask that the Minister of State looks at the laws for the operation of the facility. The EPA should come before the council looking for permission. Third, will the Minister of State give a commitment that the level of resources provided to monitor what is happening regarding emissions from heavy industries like the Irish Cement site in Mungret will be enhanced, because as of now it is inadequate?This is about public health and the concerns of people living in the Mungret, Dooradoyle and Raheen areas for themselves and their children. We cannot have houses built virtually right up alongside the Mungret Irish Cement plant. People are worried about their health. It is the least they deserve. I also encourage those in the area who have concerns to make submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. It is critically important that the EPA grants an oral hearing to the residents and the Limerick Against Pollution group when it makes its draft decision. These are reasonable people.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator O'Donnell for his comments and welcome them. I understand the concerns that he has. He will accept that it is difficult for me to comment on an individual licence application lest I be accused of interfering in the EPA's independent licensing process. We have to take that on board.

I would also point out that while overall compliance with EPA licences is good, the EPA's office of environmental enforcement introduced a new methodology in 2015 for risk-ranking national priority sites, which takes account of enforcement performance giving a timely, dynamic and accurate picture of what regulatory responses should be directed.

Targeting actions in the right places is also of critical importance to the EPA in addressing the problems in an effective and efficient manner. It is placing a particular focus on any licensed industrial waste and wastewater facilities creating a nuisance for adjacent communities. EPA prosecutions are particularly focused on priority sites. In 2016, the EPA conducted over 1,500 site visits at licensed facilities and 17 prosecutions were pursued. Anyone with concerns in respect of the operations of the Mungret facility should raise them directly with the agency. As the Senator said, people have the opportunity to make submissions as the Senator has done, and to request an oral hearing at which these issues can be aired in public. I would hope that all parties would engage in processes as required and that the concerns of people in the locality will be taken on board in any decision made by the Environmental Protection Agency.