EPA Ireland
Environmental Protection Agency
Organisation
The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is at the front line of environmental protection and policing in Ireland www.epa.ie. We ensure that Ireland's environment is protected, and we monitor changes in environmental trends to detect early warning signs of neglect or deterioration.
Protecting our environment is a huge responsibility, and we work with a number of organisations that carry out specific environmental functions. As of August 2014, we are also responsible for ensuring that the people of Ireland are protected from the harmful effects of radiation. The EPA is an independent public body established under the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992. The other main instruments from which we derive our mandate are the Waste Management Act, 1996, and the Protection of the Environment Act, 2003 and Radiological Protection (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014.
We have a wide range of functions to protect the environment, and our primary responsibilities include:
- Environmental licensing
- Enforcement of environmental law
- Environmental planning, education and guidance
- Monitoring, analysing and reporting on the environment
- Regulating Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions
- Environmental research development
- Strategic environmental assessment
- Waste management
- Radiological protection.
Role in the project
Since 1994, the EPA has funded research that has increased national understanding of our environment, the challenges it faces and responses to these. It has also developed high quality research capacity and supported innovation that is internationally respected.
EPA demonstrates strong involvement in radiation protection in Ireland from development and implementation radiation protection standards to radiation protection research, and its commitment to radiation protection research in Europe, evidenced by its active participation in the research platforms ALLIANCE, NERIS and EURADOS. EPA will be act as POM for CONCERT and is currently involved in the CONFIDENCE project.