Catchment News

Home News Public consultation: have your say on the EPA draft strategic plan for 2022-2026

Public consultation: have your say on the EPA draft strategic plan for 2022-2026

The Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of developing a new strategic plan for the period 2022-2026. A public consultation is now open to allow people to have their say on the plan. This consultation closes on Friday 11 March 2022.

The EPA have reviewed our purpose, vision and values and identified the key strategic outcomes we want to achieve to ensure we deliver on our purpose and vision. While we will continue to deliver a wide range of functions across all aspects of environmental protection, we have identified a number of specific priorities which we aim to achieve by 2026.

The plan is being developed in the context of our latest assessment of Ireland’s Environment, which found that the overall quality of Ireland’s environment is not what it should be, and that the outlook is not optimistic unless we accelerate the implementation of solutions across all sectors and society. Furthermore, while the recent OECD review of the EPA found that ‘the EPA has established itself as a trusted and respected body for environmental and radiological protection that is recognised for its scientific integrity’ the OECD made a number of key recommendations to further strengthen the Agency, which we intend to address over the course of this Strategy.

Consultation with stakeholders is a critical part of the development of this plan. As such we are undertaking a public consultation process seeking the views of the public and stakeholders on what should be included in the plan.

Learn more:

You can read the draft plan on EPA.ie

If you would like to comment on our draft EPA Strategy Plan 2022 – 2026 please do so through our questionnaire.

Part of the EPA draft Strategic Plan for 2022-2026

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.