Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 156: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the action he will take on foot of the publication of the European Pollutant Emissions Register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42521/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) is published on foot of a requirement in the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive. In Ireland, the EPER is compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency every three years, and gives details on emissions to air and water from activities licensed under the above Directive where emissions of specific chemicals exceed a reporting threshold as set out in Annex I to the EPER Council Decision 2000/47/EC.

The general purpose of the EPER is to collect and report on emissions from individual installations across Europe. The objectives of the EPER are to:

collect comparable emission data from around 20,000 individual industrial sources and activities throughout Europe as specified in the IPPC Directive;

store the reported data in a register, which is publicly accessible over the Internet;

disseminate the registered data to the public by written reports and the Internet.

For the general public, it is intended that the EPER will enhance awareness, accessibility and comparability of information on emissions to the environment. As the EPER is not a register of breaches of IPPC licences, no action is required on foot of its publication.