City council one of top six performing local authorities

Cork City Council was among the six top performers in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) local authority performance review 2024, but further action is needed on discharge and misconnections, the report said.

The EPA’s performance review found that six local authorities achieved high performance scores in 2024 including Cork city.

Three further local authorities “consistently achieved good performance scores” over the past three years including Cork county, while the five lowest performing local authorities were Leitrim, Galway City, Sligo, Clare, and Donegal.

The report sees local authorities marked excellent, strong, moderate, or limited in 19 national enforcement priorities (NEPs), with a requirement to meet a strong or excellent in all areas.

Cork City Council met the required standard of a strong or excellent result in 18 of the 19 NEPs in 2024. The EPA said that greater focus is required in the discharge licences/misconnections NEP where performance did not meet the required standard any year for the last three years.

In 2024, Cork city scored excellent in two areas, strong in 16, and moderate in one. In 2023, they scored excellent in two areas and moderate in eight, while in 2022 they were excellent in three areas, moderate in five, and limited in two.

Meanwhile, Cork County Council met the required standard in 17 of the 19 NEPs, with moderate results in two and strong in 12. They were marked excellent in five areas.

The EPA commended them for these results but said: “Greater focus is required in the areas where moderate results were attained, in particular the environmental noise directive NEP where performance did not meet the required standard in any year throughout the three-year cycle.”

In 2023, Cork county was marked excellent in seven areas and limited in three, while in 2022 they were excellent in four areas and limited in six.