Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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211. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of air quality monitoring stations that are being monitored by his Department in County Cork; the locations of the stations; when they will come online; the new monitoring stations that will be installed until the end of 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27192/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme is operated, maintained and monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rather than my Department. However, my Department has provided funding for a significant upgrade to the network in recent years and, as a result, the number of monitoring stations has increased from 29 in 2017 to 102 today.

All stations collect air quality data for a range of pollutants in order to provide information to the public, and for assessment against European legal limit values and World Health Organisation guideline values. Details on locations of all monitoring stations currently in operation, along with real-time and historic data from each station, including all those in County Cork, can be found at the EPA-operated website, www.airquality.ie

The final expansion of the network will be completed this year and will increase the number of official stations to 110. I have no function in determining the location of new monitoring stations. The EPA decide on the most appropriate locations based on best practice and EU requirements, and questions in relation to proposed sites may be addressed to them directly.