Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 205: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the budgetary or legislative measures he has in mind to address serious air pollution at known locations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44626/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The monitoring, assessment and management of ambient air quality in Ireland is carried out according to the requirements of the EU Air Quality Framework Directive. This Directive was transposed into Irish law through the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 (Ambient Air Quality Assessment and Management) Regulations 1999. Under further regulations made in 2002, 2004 and 2009, specific ambient air quality standards have been prescribed for the following pollutants:

· sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead (2002);

· carbon monoxide and benzene (2002);

· ozone (2004); and

· polyaromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, nickel, cadmium and mercury (2009).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has responsibility for monitoring Irish air quality. The EPA continually monitors a range of atmospheric pollutants via a network of air quality monitoring stations located around the country. The EPA reports the results of the air quality monitoring of the above pollutants on its website at: http://www.epa.ie/whatwedo/monitoring/air/data /. My Department keeps these data under ongoing review to identify any significant trends which might emerge and also meets periodically with the EPA on air quality issues. The EPA also publishes a comprehensive annual report on air quality, the most recent being Air Quality in Ireland 2009 – Key Indicators of Ambient Air Quality (November 2010). This report, copies of which are available on the EPA's website, provides an overview of ambient air quality trends in Ireland in 2008 based on data from 30 monitoring stations and a further 18 stations operated by local authorities to measure black smoke. The report confirmed that air quality was generally good at monitoring stations throughout the country.

The report did find that levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter (PM10) remain a concern in larger cities owing to traffic levels. My Department has met with the EPA, Dublin City Council and the Health Service Executive to discuss elevated recordings of nitrogen dioxide at Winetavern Street in April 2009 and the four Dublin local authorities are now preparing a plan to address this. Provisional data indicate that levels of nitrogen dioxide in Dublin measured during the first 9 months of this year are below the statutory limit value.

Domestic solid fuel use is the other main source of particulate matter in air in Ireland and particularly impacts air quality in areas where the sale of bituminous coal is permitted. As a result, levels of particulate matter in smaller towns are similar to, or worse than, those in cities.

In order to improve air quality, the sulphur content of bituminous coal is currently limited to 0.7 % by a Voluntary Agreement with members of the Solid Fuel Trade Group (SFTG). This agreement has been in place since 2002 and has helped to protect air quality standards in areas where bituminous coal continues to be used.

My Department, in consultation with representatives of the SFTG and other stakeholders, is now giving consideration to further strengthening measures to improve ambient air quality and the protection of human health and environmental quality from the pollutants caused by the burning of solid fuel. In this context, the establishment of a statutory basis for the 0.7% maximum sulphur content standard is under consideration. This work is being carried out in the context of the forthcoming application of the carbon tax to solid fuel in the domestic sector.