Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 551: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has studied the results of the monitoring of air pollution at the various locations throughout County Kildare; if any particular action is required arising therefrom; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36979/05]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 556: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has studied the results of the monitoring of air pollution at various locations throughout the country; his views on the apparent increases in air pollution in any particular region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36984/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 551 and 556 together.

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 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 the limit values for pollutants under the EU directives on ambient air quality were not exceeded in 2003. 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.

The EPA has a statutory duty under the Air Quality Standards Regulations 2002 to make information available on ambient concentrations of all pollutants under the scope of the regulations. The EPA website provides real-time, publicly accessible, data from a number of monitoring stations nationally which allows the public to gauge air quality in relation to current EU and national standards. Alert thresholds for certain pollutants are in place for the purpose of triggering immediate action by the agency to inform the public where such thresholds are exceeded.

Where the indicative level for any pollutant has been exceeded, the 2002 regulations place primary responsibility, following notification by the agency, on the relevant local authorities for the development of long-term air quality management plans to ensure compliance with the thresholds for the relevant pollutant or pollutants. To date, no local authority has been notified by the agency to prepare such plans.

Where there is a future risk of a pollutant threshold being exceeded and the agency considers measures are likely to be needed in the short term, the agency is expected to notify the relevant local authorities to prepare a short-term air pollution action plan to reduce the risk of a threshold being exceeded. The agency has on only one occasion to date on 20 April 2005, notified a local authority — Dublin City Council — of the need to prepare a short-term air pollution action plan to address a likely future exceedance of particulate matter at one monitoring station based on a comparison of the 2003 monitoring data with the limit values applying from 1 January 2005.