The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said local authorities must effectively prioritise enforcement resources to protect and improve the environment.
A total of 20 national environmental enforcement priorities have been identified.
They are focused on outcomes for air quality, water quality, waste management, noise and government processes.
An EPA assessment of the enforcement of these standards by the 31 local authorities in 2023 found that, on average, a "Strong or Excellent" score was achieved for 70% of the priorities set.
This was an improvement on the enforcement scores achieved the previous year when "Strong or Excellent" was achieved 60% of the time.
All local authorities are required to achieve an "Excellent" score in all 20 priority enforcement areas by the end of this year.
In the area of waste, the enforcement priorities include tackling illegal waste, construction and demolition waste, end-of-life vehicles and metal waste, as well as enforcement of household and commercial waste standards.
In relation to water quality, a key priority is tackling problems emanating from farmyards including slurry, and soiled water collection and storage.
Domestic wastewater systems and septic tanks are a key concern, so too are discharge licences and misconnections.
Priorities in air quality and noise enforcement include policing the regulations around the sale of solid fuels.
Monitoring air quality and enforcing the environmental noise directive are important under this heading too.
Farm inspections 'far below' level needed
The latest EPA report confirms that enforcement of waste regulations by local authorities in 2023 successfully delivered improvements and positive environmental outcomes including the detection and cessation of illegal waste activities.
However, it also says that, in general, local authorities did not adequately prioritise enforcement resources to the issue of water quality, or air and noise pollution, with poor inspection and follow up action in these areas.
Farm inspections are far below the level needed to drive compliance and improve water quality, it says.
It also wants local authorities to do more to ensure that only approved solid fuels are available for sale in Ireland, so the public can be protected from harmful air pollution.
The report notes that across the 31 local authorities, a total of 547 staff handled more than 70,000 environmental complaints in 2023.
Over 212,000 environmental inspections were carried out, resulting in 17,000 environmental enforcement actions.
A total of 470 prosecutions were initiated between the 31 local authorities.
The EPA’s assessment says eight local authorities achieved a "Strong or Excellent" score in 17 or more of the 20 National Enforcement Priorities.
These were Kildare, Meath, Dublin City, Monaghan, Carlow, Cork County, Donegal and Wicklow county councils.
For the second consecutive year, Kildare County Council was the only local authority in the country to achieve a "Strong or Excellent" score across all 20 National Enforcement Priority categories.
Meath County Council achieved an "Excellent" score in 15 priority areas.
This was the highest level of "Excellent" scores achieved by any local authorities.
Meath was also awarded a "Strong" score for 4 other enforcement priority targets.
Dublin City Council achieved a "Strong or Excellent" score in 16 of the 17 National Enforcement Priorities that apply to their functional area.
Not good enough
Six local authorities failed to achieve the required "Strong or Excellent" score in 10 or more of the 20 priority areas.
These were Westmeath, Galway City, Waterford, Wexford, Sligo and Kilkenny County Councils.
The EPA said this level of performance is not good enough and needs to improve.
Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said that leadership was needed at local authority level.
"The effective enforcement of environmental law is essential to identify polluters and non-compliant operators, and to hold them to account.
"Local authority leadership is critical in delivering better environmental outcomes through the prioritisation of environmental enforcement and the appropriate allocation of resources," he said.
