The code, which is aimed at environmental regulators, sets out the requirements for an effective enforcement system to tackle unauthorised waste activities.

It was published last week by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency who have now called on local authorities to get ‘robust’ on their actions.

It sets out details of the detection of offences, policies on clean-up and remediation, regularisation and powers of penalties and sanctions.

Senior inspector with the EPA’s office of environmental enforcement Jim Moriarty, said: “Now that this is in place, the EPA expects that local authority enforcement systems will robustly deliver effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions against illegal operators.

“The EPA will monitor on-the-ground delivery of actions by the local authorities to identify and punish illegal waste operators.”

The Code of Practice has been prepared by the EPA at the request of the Minister for Environment Heritage, Environment and Local Government, following his policy direction) of the 25 July last year.

The Code represents a significant part of Ireland’s response to a European Court of Justice judgement against Ireland and, the government hopes, further strengthens the Irish enforcement system.

Luke Walsh

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