Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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191. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the steps that are being taken to improve air quality in Glanmire, County Cork. [53147/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am currently progressing several measures designed to improve air quality across the country including the introduction of new solid fuel regulations, as previously agreed by Government, which will come into operation on 31 October. The Air Pollution Act 1987 (Solid Fuels) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 529 of 2022) will introduce minimum quality standards that will apply to all solid fuels distributed throughout the State. This will ensure that the most polluting can no longer be made available on the Irish market and will assist the public in transitioning to less polluting alternatives. 

These regulations are necessary as each year some 1,300 people die prematurely in Ireland from illnesses which are caused or exacerbated by air pollution from solid fuel burning. It is further estimated that there are over 16,200 life years lost, while many people also experience a poor quality of life due to the associated short-term and long-term health impacts of this form of pollution. I am committed to addressing this critical public health and environmental challenge, and the introduction of the new regulations will play a key role in this regard.

My Department will be running a public information campaign in relation to the new regulations and is also providing support to Local Authorities in terms of both enforcement and awareness raising.

The Clean Air Strategy will be also published in the coming weeks which will identify and promote the integrated actions across Government required to reduce air pollution.

In addition, the LIFE EMERALD project, which commenced in 2021, will use information from our national air quality monitoring network to provide a national 3-day air quality forecast and near real-time mapping of air pollutants throughout the country; as well as to create historical maps of air pollutants. The project will improve Ireland’s ambient air quality management capabilities, by using an air quality modelling system to gain a better understanding of the factors contributing to poor air quality and develop a system that will provide better information to the public.