IRISH ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

These Regulations prescribe the form of notice to be served under section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992 , by a local authority or a person who intends to make a complaint to the District Court, concerning a person who is alleged to have made, caused or been responsible for noise giving reasonable cause for annoyance.

The Regulations also provide that failure to comply with the requirements of a notice or a notice as amended, issued by a local authority under section 107 of the Act, may be prosecuted summarily by the local authority.

This Order brings into operation, with effect from 1 July, 1994, both Section 18 (1) of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992 , which repeals Section 51 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 , and the Third Schedule to the 1992 Act, which provides for amendment of the Air Pollution Act, 1987 .

These Regulations amend the Quality of Bathing Waters Regulations, 1992 which give effect to Council Directive No. 76/160/EEC of 8 December, 1975 (O.J. No. L31/1, 5 February, 1976) concerning the quality of bathing water. The effect of the amendment is to add 22 bathing areas to the 94 bathing areas listed in the First Schedule of the 1992 Regulations.

These Regulations implement Council Directive 90/64/ Euratom of 4 December, 1990 on the operational protection of outside workers exposed to the risk of ionising radiation during their activities in controlled areas.

The Regulations provide for the radiation protection of workers liable to receive an exposure of high radiation levels while working away from their employers’ premises. The Regulations also apply to workers who come from, or who go to work in, another Member State of the European Community.

These Regulations provide for a scale of fees payable to the Environmental Protection Agency for applications for licences, reviews of licences or revised licences, and objections.

The Regulations also set out the fees for applications or reviews transferred under section 99 (4) of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992 to the Agency from local authorities, sanitary authorities or the Minister for the Marine and the arrangements for refunds of fees, reduced fees and waiver of fees.

The Order brings into operation section 8 of the Sea Pollution Act, 1991 . All other sections of the Act were brought into operation on the 20th day of November, 1992 under the Sea Pollution Act, 1991 (Commencement) Order, 1992 ( S.I. No. 380 of 1992 ).

Section 8 relates to the repeal of the Oil Pollution of the Sea Acts 1956 to 1977 as set out in the First Schedule to the Act on the coming into operation of the Sea Pollution (Prevention of Oil Pollution) Regulations, 1994.

These Regulations are for the purpose of giving effect to Council Regulation (EEC) No. 259/93 of 1st February, 1993 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community. While this Regulation is directly applicable in Member States of the European Union, it is necessary to provide for certain administrative details, in particular those relating to enforcement.

These Regulations inter alia provide for the designation of competent authorities for the purpose of controlling waste transhipments, the powers of competent authorities, the imposition of certain requirements in relation to the shipment of waste into or out of the State, and the prohibition of waste imports by the Environmental Protection Agency.

These Regulations are in addition to the European Communities (Asbestos Waste) Regulations, 1990. They implement certain provisions, relating to the reduction or prevention of asbestos waste arisings, of Council Directive 87/217/EEC of 19th March, 1987, on the prevention and reduction of environmental pollution by asbestos.