28/10/2003

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

Cullen launches Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE)

€15 million fine for environmental pollution and use of video/tape

recording in law announced

"An enforcement watchdog with teeth" – says Cullen

"Environmental excellence is vital to our economic success. 'Quick buck' merchants who are prepared to sacrifice our environment at the altar of personal profit must think again", Minister Martin Cullen said today (Wednesday, October 22nd).

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government was speaking at the official launch of the new Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE). The Minister also announced that he has made an order to enable a maximum €15million fine for those convicted of environmental pollution and the recognition in law of more modern and effective methods for the taking of samples and recording evidence, including video and tape recordings (details of Order attached).

The OEE will be based in Wexford with enforcement teams in Dublin, Cork and Castlebar. Financed from the Environment Fund, Cullen said the OEE was: "Another example of how Government is using people's money for a better environment".

He said: "Legislation matched with enforcement is the approach Government is taking on the environment. Those who flout the law and cause environmental pollution must, as a matter of course, be held to account".

Outlining the new Office of Environmental Enforcement, Cullen said: "The OEE ushers in a new era of environmental enforcement in Ireland. The weak link in the past has been the lack of a dedicated, professional and fully resourced team with extensive powers for environmental enforcement. Today I am righting that wrong. Through the OEE, we now have an enforcement agency with backbone. We are clamping down on those who flout environmental laws".

Cullen also stepped up the pressure on polluters. He announced the commencement of new provisions under Protection of the Environment Act 2003 which will allow for fines for environmental pollution up to a maximum of €15 million for conviction on indictment.

Directly addressing business, Cullen said: "Business simply cannot afford the potential overheads that outdated waste management practices impose. Modernising waste infrastructure and services is vital for competitiveness, jobs and living standards. A key part of this modernisation process is enforcing our environmental laws and stamping out illegal waste activities. The Office of Environmental Enforcement will be a pivotal player in doing just that ".

The OEE has a mandate to deliver enhanced environmental compliance through enforcement of EPA licences issued to waste, industrial and other activities. It will also exercise a supervisory role in respect of the environmental protection activities of local authorities. In this regard, the OEE acts as a resource to members of the public who have exhausted all other avenues of complaint.

As a dedicated and distinct unit of the Environmental Protection Agency, the establishment of the OEE –

• gives necessary extra focus to enforcement of waste and Integrated Pollution Prevention Control (IPPC) licences, by bringing together all the major enforcement powers of the EPA into a single, dedicated, office;
• gives greater attention and priority to supervising the environmental performance of local authorities, through auditing their performance, providing advice and guidance, and, in appropriate cases, giving binding directions and
• links-in with the significant additional enforcement powers contained in the Protection of the Environment Act, 2003.

The Minister said: "Being located within the EPA, the OEE can build on the EPA's unrivalled knowledge and experience of ensuring compliance with the conditions it imposes in waste and IPPC licences. It can readily avail of EPA's comprehensive data resources, technical services and legal powers. A nationwide, regional, structure is already in place. And finally, an OEE as part of the EPA has become fully operational much quicker than a new stand-alone body could."

The OEE has an appropriate range of powers available to enable it to discharge its important role. In relation to the enforcement of licences issued by the EPA, its powers include the provision of education and information; the option of informal warnings; serving legally binding notices; and as the ultimate deterrent, prosecution.

In relation to local authorities, the OEE has a graduated series of actions available to it, ranging from the provision of advice up to and including powers of direction, in relation to the performance by local authorities of environmental protection functions.

Concluding, the Minister made it clear that OEE must build on the level of enforcement achieved by the EPA in 2002, which he described as significant. This included 11 prosecutions brought by the Agency in respect of waste and IPPC licensing in 2002, backed up by over 1,100 monitoring visits, over 900 site visits, the analysis of over 2,000 samples, and nearly 500 warning letters

The OEE will be based in Wexford with enforcement teams in Dublin, Cork and Castlebar. These are assisted by the experience and knowledge of EPA laboratories and field staff located in Dublin, Castlebar, Cork, Kilkenny, Monaghan, Mallow, Athlone, Letterkenny and Limerick.

ENDS

See attached details of Order made by Minister Cullen

Protection of the Environment Act 2003

Waste-Related Enforcement Provisions

Minister Cullen today (October 22nd) signed an Order strengthening the enforcement provisions of the Waste Management Acts, the Protection of the Environment Act 2003. The Order (effective from today) provides for -

• Significant increases in the fines for offences, up to a maximum of €15m for conviction on indictment.
• Reversal of the burden of proof in certain cases so that it will be up to the defendant to prove that an activity did not cause environmental pollution.
• A new provision through which landowners can, by virtue of certain factors, be deemed to be complicit in illegal dumping activities on their lands, unless the contrary can be proved.
• Strengthening of the powers of "authorised persons" under the Waste Management Acts in relation to the stopping, inspection and detention of vehicles. In addition, in support of more effective involvement of the Gardai in certain enforcement activities, a mechanism has been introduced under which the Garda Commissioner can appoint members of An Garda Siochana to be "authorised persons", ensuring that the powers under the Acts can be made available, speedily, to individual Gardai, where necessary.
• Extension, to the EPA, of certain powers available to local authorities in relation to the serving of notices and carrying out of remedial works (recovering the costs from the relevant parties).
• Specific power for the High Court, when making Orders in cases brought before it, to include, in Orders for Costs, provision for the recoupment of the costs incurred by the EPA in carrying out inspections, undertaking analyses, etc.
• Recognition, in law, of more modern and effective methods for the taking of samples and recording of evidence (video recording, tape recordings etc).