In 2013 the Clean Technology Centre were commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a report in response to the questions contained in the European Commission’s questionnaire on the implementation of Directive 1999/13/EC as set out in Commission Decision 2010/681/EC for the reporting period 1st January 2011 – 31st December 2013.
This was the 4th report on the implementation of the Directive.
The national legislation that originally implemented the solvents Directive in Ireland was replaced during this reporting period by the European Union (Installations and Activities Using Organic Solvents) Regulations 2012. For local authority regulated installations, these Regulations replace the previous Accredited Inspection Contractor (AIC) Scheme with Approved Assessors now being appointed by the EPA. Certification via the Local Authorities (LAs) still takes place as before.
Installations in Ireland that fall under the Directive are authorised either by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or for those installations that do not come under the EPA’s remit, by local authorities. As part of the preparation for this report, the EPA commissioned a survey of all LAs on their implementation of the Directive including all the necessary information required for the preparation of this report. A review of all EPA licences and their reports was undertaken to determine the installations that are still subject to the requirements of the Directive and to extract the information required for the preparation of the report.
The EPA undertook a number of activities during the reporting period in support of the implementation of the legislation, including establishing the National Panel of Approved Assessors, development and updating of guidance, holding workshops, auditing of local authority performance, and placing trade advertisements to highlight obligations for installations.
There are 298 solvents Directive activities occurring across 292 individual installations in Ireland, as at 31st December 2013. The EPA regulates 47 installations, while the LAs regulate 245 installations.