Air and Water Pollution
Dail Éireann — 2025-10-15
============================================================

Noel Grealish (IND), Galway West

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, which I am dealing with on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. The air we breathe is fundamental to our health, environment and the overall well-being of our communities. Nationally, from an ambient air-quality point of view, the main air pollutants of concern are fine particulate matter from solid fuel combustion and nitrogen dioxide from transport. However, wildfires or localised fire incidents, though infrequent, can impact air quality. Under the Air Pollution Act 1987, where it appears to a local authority that urgent measures are necessary to prevent or limit air pollution affecting any part of its functional area or any adjoining area, the local authority may take steps to carry out such operations or give such assistance as it considers necessary to prevent or limit such pollution or to remedy the effects of same.
Local authorities are independent in the exercise of their statutory functions under the Air Pollution Act 1987. In addition, the EPA has advised that it works closely with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown local authority regarding such incidents and can assist through the provision of support and advice on air pollution.
In terms of dealing with fires, including gorse fires, the provision of fire services in a local authority’s functional area, including the establishment and maintenance of a fire brigade, the assessment of fire cover needs and the provision of fire station premises, is a statutory function of individual fire authorities under the fire services Acts 1981 and 2003.
The national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, supports the fire authorities through setting general policy, providing a central training programme, issuing guidance on operational and other related matters and providing capital funding for equipment and priority infrastructure projects. The NDFEM developed a policy document, Keeping Communities Safe, which sets out a system of national processes and standards for fire service delivery in Ireland based on a risk management approach. Keeping Communities Safe is the outcome of a wide-ranging review of fire service activities and it is supported by a series of documents on issues such as fire services training and safety management systems for fire services. A further set of documents, titled "good practice notes", describes methods for the fire service to deal with a range of solutions in order to achieve consistent good practice nationally.
When it comes to the monitoring ambient air quality, the national competent authority for the monitoring and assessment of ambient air quality is the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA. The EPA works closely with local authorities to site, install, operate and maintain monitoring stations at locations around the country. Health data is provided to the public in the form of the air quality index for health, which translates both monitored and modelled air quality to health advice.
The European Environment Agency’s report, Europe's Environment 2025, noted in its country profile that Ireland’s air quality is among Europe’s best. It also noted that Ireland meets current EU air quality standards. Significant progress in improving Ireland’s air quality was also noted this year in the annual clean air strategy progress report in July 2025, including that Ireland has reduced ammonia emissions on foot of improvements in agricultural practices and reduced sulphur dioxide emissions due to a greater use of renewables in energy generation and increased retrofitting and heat pump installation. However, as acknowledged in Ireland’s clean air strategy, there is no safe level of air pollution and we must continue to ensure that we put the appropriate measures in place to protect our air quality.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-10-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-10-15