Sligo County Council says staffing and resource issues have led to reduced enforcement of environmental standards
The Council has been criticised in a new EPA report for failing in a number of areas of environmental enforcement between 2014 and last year.
These include in air quality, waste and wastewater treatment areas.
Meanwhile, Leitrim had an overall grade of excellent and Donegal was above target in general, according to the report.
Sligo County Council’s performance score “remained below target” because it did not meet its targets for litter; septic tank and waste battery inspections.
The performance of the Sligo in relation to air quality was also “not up to standard”, and enforcement of regulations on decorative paints, solvents and petroleum vapour was found to be unacceptable.
In response to the EPA's findings, Sligo County Council say their performance has been adversely impacted in recent years by a lack of staff resources in the Environmental Enforcement and Inspection areas due to the difficult financial position of the Council and the non replacement of staff who retired and staff who moved to other local authorities.
A number of vacant positions have been filled in late 2017 and more staff will be recruited in 2018 which will allow the Council improve significantly its performance.
