Catchment News

Home News New EPA Online Portal provides full and open access to environmental enforcement information

New EPA Online Portal provides full and open access to environmental enforcement information

The EPA has launched the second phase of a major new online service, the Licensing and Enforcement Access Portal or LEAP Online, following on from the release of Phase 1 in May of this year.

Phase 1 provided access to Site Visit Reports, monitoring reports and responses by licensees to those reports, as well as monitoring returns, requests for information and approval.

The Phase 2 release delivers the further enforcement information, including details of incidents, non-compliances, complaint summaries and also compliance investigations into issues detected at licensed sites.

The LEAP Online portal is now complete and provides access to the full set of enforcement information describing the enforcement activities, actions and communications between the EPA and holders of EPA licences and permits. The information can be viewed on desktop, tablet and mobile phone.

“The EPA want the public to have full access to our environmental enforcement activities. The detailed compliance and enforcement information we make available through the LEAP Online portal allows the public to learn about nearby licensed operations and how they are performing in their obligations to protect their local environment. It also enables operators themselves to communicate directly with their neighbours about their environmental performance as they conduct their business, including how they address compliance issues when they occur.”
Darragh Page, EPA Programme Manager

Further information on the various categories of regulatory correspondence is available on the EPA website.

The release of LEAP Online is part of the EPA’s ongoing work to continuously improve public access to the information we hold. Over the years, the EPA has progressively delivered improved access to information about its licensing and enforcement activities.

The EPA has delivered LEAP Online in two phases:

Phase 1: launched on 25 May 2023, Phase 1 provided access to EPA site inspection and monitoring reports as well as “Licensee Returns” submitted by operators. These are the main types of notifications that operators must send to demonstrate ongoing compliance with licence conditions, and include monitoring reports, site updates, requests for approval and responses to EPA instructions and Corrective Actions. It also included Licensee Public Responses to EPA Site Visit Reports – the operators’ Right to Reply to EPA findings, and the Annual Environmental Report which summarises the operators’ compliance each year.
Phase 2: launching today, Phase 2 includes information on the rest of our regulatory correspondence, including details of incidents, complaints summaries, non-compliances and details of Compliance Investigations (our interventions into non-compliant operations).

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.

Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.

This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.

Local Authority Waters Programme

The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.

Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage

The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.