Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 681: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of air pollution monitoring points located throughout County Kildare; the extent to which modern technology is being used; if readings have given specific information of interest to his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30636/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Air quality assessment is the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency and air quality management a matter for local authorities informed by air quality measurement data. The extent of local air quality monitoring and the adequacy of monitoring equipment is a matter for the relevant local authority in the first instance and in consultation with the agency in the overall national context.

The Environmental Protection Agency Act (Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management) Regulations 1999 designate the EPA as the competent body for assessing air quality in Ireland. This includes responsibility for ensuring, or causing to be ensured, that air quality monitoring equipment is accurate and checking, or causing to be checked, the maintenance of equipment accuracy, in particular by internal quality controls carried out in accordance with the requirements of European quality assurance standards, the analysis of assessment methods and co-ordination within the State of Community-wide quality assurance programmes organised by the Commission of the European Communities.

The EPA's Air Quality and Emissions to Air Report 2003 contains details of the monitoring and assessment of national air quality, and incorporates data from all air quality monitoring stations operated by the EPA and local authorities, including details for County Kildare. The report states that air quality in Ireland complied with the 2003 air quality standards then in force for all pollutants. The report is available in the Oireachtas Library, as is Kildare County Council's annual report on ambient air quality for 2003-04.

Neither Kildare County Council nor the EPA has drawn my attention to any particular issue in regard to air quality in County Kildare on the basis of the most recent data available to these bodies.