Clare County Council, Ennis

Clare County Council, Ennis

Clare County Council has been ranked as one of the worst performing local authorities in Ireland regarding enforcing environmental protection legislation.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a new report which shows that Clare’s local authority met the required standard in just 11 of the 19 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs) in 2024.

This assessment is based on the EPA’s Local Authority Performance Framework where performance is measured and reported against NEPs focused on improving environmental compliance and achieving positive outcomes for waste, water, air and noise.

Clare County Council was deemed the fourth lowest performing local authority in 2024, with Sligo, Galway City and Leitrim the only local authorities marked lower.

Clare’s Council was deemed ‘strong’ or ‘excellent’ in only 11 of the 19 areas in which it was assessed.

The environmental watchdog claimed that Clare’s performance surrounding eight of the NEPs was ‘moderate’. Four of these NEPs fell under the ‘Water Enforcement’ category, three related to ‘Air and Noise Enforcement’ and the final one concerned ‘Waste Enforcement’.

Eight areas relating to ‘Water Enforcement’, ‘Air and Noise Enforcement’, ‘Water Enforcement’, and ‘Government Processes’ were ranked ‘strong’.

Meanwhile, the local authority’s planning for the NEPs in terms of environmental resource planning, environmental outcomes, and review and reporting, was described as ‘excellent’.

“Clare County Council met the required standard of a Strong or Excellent result in 11 of the 19 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs) in 2024 and were one of the lowest performing local authorities in 2024,” the EPA’s report said.

“This is a decline on performance in 2023.

“In particular, there are four NEPs where performance did not meet the required standard in any year throughout the 3-year LAPF cycle: Household and Commercial Waste, Agriculture (Farm Yards), Environmental Noise Directive (ENDs) and Air & Noise Control (including Planning).

“Local authorities are expected to meet the required standard in each of the NEPs and should prioritise and allocate appropriate resources to the relevant work areas to ensure effective delivery of the NEPs.”