Case Of Lots Done More To Do For Wexford In Latest EPA Report

Wexford County Council are being urged to improve its takings with the Deposit Return Scheme for 2026.

The EPA has released a new report showing Wexford ranking highly in 11 of the 15 areas catagorised by the environmental agency.

The council was found to be good at enforcing rules around agricultural water use, solid fuel and dumping but the recycling of bottles was one area of concern.

Thomas Wallace from the EPA says more work needs to be done to reach the required standards on this:

"Where Wexford fell down on this is there's set schemes where we're expecting enforcement and they just didn't show enough activity in all of them.

"In 2026, the focus will be electrical waste, batteries, farm plastics and the Deposit Return Scheme so that'll be a focus for all local authorities and it's hoped everyone will do it."

Air quality monitoring has once again been highlighted as an issue here.

The EPA report found the recording and data use of the air quality in the county was an area of concern for the council.

Mr Wallace says this needs to be stepped up to keep up the high standards elsewhere in the report:

"So that's really where there's monitoring stations for every local authority and it's where they identify exceedances on particular matter which can be harmful to health.

"So we want to see actions taken to determine the source and what can be done around it and to ensure these stations are all working and are active."

Council officials are also urged to keep up the momentum and tackle any water issues that may arise.

Mr Wallace says the council could be quicker to respond to incidents and keep people safe:

"That can be anything from putting up Do Not Swim signs on beaches and following up what's the source of these high levels of things like ecoli.

"It's also the likes of septic tanks which in Wexford, they have a high level of inspections to do in this area and they are doing a lot of work.

"But there are set targets that local authorities need to meet underneath that programme so it's just that Wexford have to continue in that area and keep the momentum."

That report was funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.