Westmeath environmental enforcement “not good enough”
Westmeath County Council is one of six local authorities across the country to have been warned that its environmental enforcement procedures are not good enough and need to improve.
The warning came in the latest performance report for local authority environmental enforcement which has been issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The report sets out the results of the EPA's assessment of local authority environmental enforcement performance for 2023, which was measured and reported against National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs) for waste, water, air and noise.
While the majority of local authorities inspected in 2023 achieved a strong or excellent score in 14 of the 20 National Enforcement Priorities, Westmeath County Council's score was just eight, down from eleven in the 2022 inspection.
The EPA report highlighted Westmeath, along with Leitrim, Galway City and Fingal and being “the most notable decliners” compared to the 2022 results.
Local authorities are “primarily responsible” for enforcing much of Ireland's environmental protection legislation, according to the EPA, who state in their latest report that the enforcement of environmental law, whereby polluters and non-compliant operators are identified and held to account is “fundamental to the protection of the environment.”
Westmeath County Council met the required standard for 40% of the National Enforcement Priorities for 2023, compared to the national average of 71%, but was requested by the EPA to focus on a dozen work areas which did not meet the required standard, including domestic water treatment systems and septic tanks; solid fuel; ongoing air and noise enforcement work; household and commercial waste; end of life vehicles and metal and complaint handling.
The local authority told the EPA – following an inspection in September of last year – that “resource constraints” had impacted on the performance of its statutory functions in the area of environmental protection. The EPA said the council should ensure that that “this vital work is appropriately prioritised” and that “adequate resources” are deployed to deliver its statutory environmental protection functions.
The audit team which inspected Westmeath County Council was told that the complaints system currently in place was “an ageing system” and while it “does 90% of the work needed” the council was awaiting the roll out of a new system.
The council told the audit team that there was “a low level of non-routine waste inspections” aimed at tackling significant illegal waste activity and multi-agency sites of interest, and the audit report also noted that “no legal actions were initiated” in either 2022 or 2023.
In relation to water quality, the audit team found that Westmeath County Council had met the “required standard” under existing legislation, but were requested to “make improvements” in their inspection and enforcement in the areas of agricultural farmyards and lands, domestic wastewater treatment systems (septic tanks) and discharge licences/misconnections.