A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set out a series of failures and underperforming environmental monitoring by local authorities, including in Waterford.
As outlined by Eoghan Dalton of The Journal, the document examines how councils have been regulating water, air, and noise quality, along with waste management.
The assessments looked at how each local authority was performing in a series of areas, from water and air quality to waste management.
Ten local authorities achieved the required standard in 70 percent or more of the assessments - Kildare, Meath, Fingal, Monaghan, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan, Dublin City, Carlow and Cork County.
Kildare County Council was the only local authority to achieve the required standard of strong or excellent across all five air and noise categories.
Shockingly poor performance by @WaterfordCounci across nearly the full range of environmental outcomes, as reported by @EPAIreland today.
I'll be writing to the council executive and the Mayor to require a full and detailed response to these finding and a plan to address issue. pic.twitter.com/59AdgLqnOK
— Marc Ó Cathasaigh TD (@MarcKC_Green) November 14, 2023
Four local authorities achieved the required standard in only 30 percent or less of their assessments - Waterford, Offaly, Kilkenny and Wexford.
Among the areas each of the under-performing counties came in for scrutiny was its monitoring of farming activities.
The report also found there to be just 11 full-time equivalent staff for farm inspections across the country.
Just a quarter of environmental staff were assigned to water monitoring and enforcement last year.
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