New data identifies disparities persisting in survival cancer rates around Ireland, following a new report, from National Cancer Registry Ireland, (NCRI) covering years 2020 to 2022. This report examines the four most common forms of cancers in Ireland; namely lung, bowel, breast and prostate cancers.
During the aforementioned period an average of 44,000 tumours were diagnosed each year, with over half potentially life-changing and requiring extensive treatments.
Some 9,800 deaths were recorded annually, with one in five of these fatalities relating to lung cancer. An estimated 220,000 people, (or 4% of the population), were identified as living with, or in long-term remission from the disease.
The survival rate, five years after diagnosis, for those with colorectal, lung or breast cancer was found to be lowest in the mid-west region, latter which covers North Tipperary, Clare and Limerick; with survival rates remaining between four and five percentage points lower, when compared with similar cases in the rest of Ireland.
This report demonstrates the very necessary and urgent need for improvements within the mid-west region, when it comes to prevention, screening and early diagnosis; right through to fast access to services and successful treatment outcomes.
A final decision on the report had been previously delayed for further consultation; with a second traffic system trialled over a period of 3 days, instead of the 4 days originally agreed. However, the initial plan, formulated by Transport Infrastructure Ireland(TII) was proposed, yesterday, by Fine Gael Cllr. Ms Peggy Ryan and seconded by Fianna Fail Cllr. Sean Ryan, thus giving same idiotic plan the “green light”.
Yesterday evening, following the approved of this controversial plan, we understand that traders reacted angrily, with the latter holding banners stating, “It’s OK to say NO” and “120 Job Losses”.
The new plans, which are expected to take several years to implement, will involve changing the traffic system reduced to one lane, thus accepting traffic and heavy goods vehicles converging from 3 lanes right in the very centre of town. It will also see a further reduction of, at least, 12-14 car parking spaces from west Liberty square, and the removal of mature trees to be replaced by miniature trees forcing a colony of 1,000 Pied Wagtails becoming homeless.
Thurles Municipal District Officials; Councillors together with other unsuspecting drivers are being asked to take great care when travelling on Upper Kickham Street, (N75), in Thurles, Co. Tipperary tomorrow. Due to recent frosts, a section of the road surface, which had been dug up, has now totally disintegrated leaving huge craters directly opposite Aldi(on North side) and close to the entrance to Monakeeba housing estate(on South side).
State of road surface on Kickham Street, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Four living craters now currently exist on both sides of this traffic infested roadway, and have done so for the past two weeks. Despite being invisible to travelling motorists, these craters, as expected, have received absolutely no maintenance attention. But then again, it’s cold and Thurles Municipal District Officials don’t get out all that much in this type of weather.
The only reason I mention this tonight is because Thurles Councillors could be travelling into Thurles as expected tomorrow, to rubber stamp the planned Phase 2 upgrade for Liberty Square etc.
Thurles Town centre traders already having lost at least 40% to 60% of former footfall, under the Phase 1 upgrade, are expected to also be in attendance; to protest against these planned illogical and fallacious changes, same formulated by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and expected to be supported by aforementioned officials and some recently elected, unqualified councillors.
We will be looking at this matter more fully and in greater detail after tomorrows decisive meeting, which will no doubt be demanding immediate resignations.
Local Authorities must effectively prioritise enforcement resources to protect and improve the environment
The prioritisation of enforcement resources on waste activities delivered improvements and positive environmental outcomes, such as the detection and cessation of illegal waste activities.
Local authorities did not adequately prioritise their enforcement resources to water, air and noise in 2023, with poor inspection rates and follow up actions.
Farm inspection rates are far below the level required to drive compliance and improve water quality.
Local authorities need to ensure that only approved solid fuels are available for sale, to protect public health from harmful air pollutants.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has today published its report on the environmental enforcement performance of local authorities in 2023. The report shows that the scale of environmental enforcement work carried out by local authorities in 2023 was significant. Across the 31 local authorities, 547 staff handled over 70,000 environmental complaints, carried out over 212,000 environmental inspections, undertook 17,000 enforcement actions and initiated 470 prosecutions.
Environmental Enforcement Activity & Performance. Tipperary sadly well down the list.
The EPA’s Local Authority Performance Framework measures and reports on performance against National Enforcement Priorities, focused on improving environmental compliance and achieving positive outcomes for water quality, air quality and waste management.
The EPA’s assessment of local authority environmental enforcement performance in 2023 found that eight local authorities achieved a Strong or Excellent score in 17 or more of the 20 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs). These were Kildare, Meath, Dublin City, Monaghan, Carlow, Cork County, Donegal and Wicklow County Councils. For the second consecutive year, Kildare County Council were the only local authority that achieved a Strong or Excellent score across all 20 NEPs. Meath County Council achieved an Excellent score in 15 NEPs and a Strong score in 4 more NEPs, which was the highest level of Excellent scores of all local authorities. Dublin City Council achieved a Strong or Excellent score in 16 of the 17 NEPs that apply to their functional area.
Six local authorities failed to achieve a Strong or Excellent score in 10 or more of the 20 NEPs. These were Westmeath, Galway City, Waterford, Wexford, Sligo and Kilkenny County Councils. This level of performance is not good enough and needs to improve.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “The effective enforcement of environmental law is essential to identify polluters and non-compliant operators, and to hold them to account. Local authority leadership is critical in delivering better environmental outcomes through the prioritisation of environmental enforcement and the appropriate allocation of resources.”
Water Enforcement: Agriculture continues to have a significant impact on water quality, resulting in excess levels of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to enter our waterways. Mr Patrick Byrne, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “While the number of local authority farm inspections increased by 9% to 1,137 in 2023, the number is still too low. More farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reach the National Agricultural Inspection Programme target of 4,500 farms inspected in 2025, to improve water quality. We’re calling on local authorities to use their full suite of enforcement powers to drive compliance with the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Regulations and improve water quality.”
Air & Noise Enforcement:
In 2023, local authorities assigned a much lower level of resources to air and noise enforcement (8%) than waste enforcement (63%) and water enforcement (29%). Whilst Ireland’s air quality met EU standards in 2023, it did not meet the health-based WHO guidelines and there were concerning localised issues which led to poor air quality. A strong inspection campaign of solid fuel producers and retailers is needed by local authorities, to make sure only approved solid fuels are available for sale and to protect public health from harmful air pollutants.
In 2023, many local authorities made little progress on implementing their Noise Action Plans (NAPs), aimed at reducing people’s exposure to transport noise. Greater action is needed to reduce the impact of noise pollution on people’s health and wellbeing. Local authorities, in collaboration with transport infrastructure bodies, need to focus implementation of NAPs on the priority areas identified using strategic noise mapping.
Waste Enforcement: Waste generation continues to grow and recycling rates for municipal and plastic packaging waste streams need to increase urgently to achieve 2025 targets. For household & commercial waste, waste collectors are required to provide a 3-bin waste segregation service. Local authorities must target areas with low use of the 3-bin service where provided, to maximise waste recovery.
Local authorities need to target waste enforcement actions to drive compliance with the new national by-product criteria for greenfield soil and stone and waste recovery levy regulations, to reduce construction and demolition (C&D) waste.
The Local Authority Environmental Enforcement Performance Report 2023 is available HEREon the EPA website.
In total seven sites have been identified as National Priorities for enforcement by the EPA in Q3 2024.
Seven Sites were identified as National Priority Sites in Q3 2024; three were from the Food & Drink Sector, two from the Intensive Agriculture Sector, one from the Waste Sector and one from the Anaerobic Digestion Sector.
The most common issues identified at these sites were non-compliant discharges to water and facility management.
A site’s presence on the National Priority Sites List indicates a poor level of licence compliance.
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) published its National Priority Sites list for quarter three, 2024. The National Priority Sites (NPS) System is a system of performance-based indicators to rank industrial and waste licensed sites in order of priority for enforcement. This allows the EPA to target its enforcement effort at the licensed operators with the poorest environmental performance.
Commenting on the publication, Dr. Tom Ryan, Director, EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “Our enforcement activities are risk based and we prioritise sites that are not complying with their licence. As noted in the EPA’s recent State of the Environment Report, a disproportionate number of sites on the National Priority Sites list have been from the dairy processing and waste sectors. This trend continued in Quarter 3 2024. The seven sites on the current list will be the subject of targeted enforcement action to ensure that the environmental issues are addressed, and compliance is restored.”
MsPamela McDonnell, Programme Manager of the EPA’s Industrial Licence Enforcement Programme said: “Three of the sites on the National Priority Sites List, North Cork Co-Op Creameries Limited, Tipperary Co-operative Creamery Limited, and Aurivo Consumer Foods Limited, are milk processing sites. Each of these has featured on the National Priority Sites List previously. Milk and milk effluent pose a significant risk to local streams and rivers if it is not carefully managed. The dairy sector must prioritise investment in environmental controls to prevent the discharge of polluting material. This remains a priority issue for the EPA”.
Other sites on the National Priority Sites list also pose a risk to water quality. The waste sites on the list include a non-hazardous waste transfer station and an anaerobic digestion facility. Both sites failed to provide sufficient infrastructure to protect groundwater and surface water.
Similarly, at the two intensive agriculture sites on the list, poor management of waste and storm water increased the risk of contaminated discharges.
The list of National Priority Sites for Q3 2024 is in Table 1 below:
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