A hospital and a health board which used incinerators without a licence were among six prosecution cases taken last year by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In its 1996 report on pollution licensing and control, published yesterday, the EPA said it had successfully prosecuted the North Western Health Board and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, for using a waste incinerator without a licence. "Both of these prosecution were successful and in each case incineration operations ceased," the report said.
Two other hospitals - the Mater Hospital and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin - considered seeking a licence but found they could not meet required standards and stopped using their incinerators.
The other prosecutions were against food-production companies and a pharmaceutical firm.
Publishing its report yesterday, the EPA said a process for ensuring swifter identification of polluters and more effective pollution-control will be in place within three years.
It is being made possible by the level of environmental information generated by the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licensing system, which is being introduced, the agency said. All industries or facilities generating significant quantities of waste or pollutants are being licensed.
With the register - which is in place and applies to many industries already - it will be possible to "catalogue the most toxic chemicals" being emitted or discharged. "It will be possible to say who is releasing them and who should be reducing them," said Mr Dara Lynott, EPA senior inspector.
In addition, a fuller examination of pollutants in terms of their location will be possible and will feature prominently in future EPA reports.
During 1996, IPC licensing was extended to animal slaughtering facilities, surface coating plants, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Over this year and 1998 meat plants, poultry processing units and piggeries will be subjected to IPC. The process is so extensive that it is being introduced over a number of years, said EPA director Mr Iain Maclean.
While it was not a panacea, it was ensuring control where in the past there was none, he said. Some 60 per cent of licence applicants had no form of control other than planning permission, and were not subject to water/air legislation.
The EPA received applications for 210 facilities last year, says its annual report on IPC licensing and control. A further 82 licences were granted, 25 got draft licences, four were withdrawn and 98 were being assessed. A total of 375 are expected by the end of 1997, and 500 by the end of 1998.
Successful prosecutions were brought against four IPC licence-holders during 1996. These were:
Roche Ireland Ltd (formerly Syntex) in Clarecastle, Co Clare, for exceeding emission limit values for atmospheric discharge;
Monaghan Poultry Products, Gallinagh, Monaghan, for exceeding limits in effluent discharge;
Castlemahon Food Products (two prosecutions) for exceeding an emission limit for effluent discharge and for disposal of sludge in contravention of licence terms.
Most public complaints about IPC holders related to odour in animal rendering plants (126 complaints), and noise associated with pharmaceutical/chemical industry (74).
The report says 31 out of 210 licence-holders were formally warned, but the EPA is satisfied with overall compliance levels.
