IRISH ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

This Statutory Instrument gives effect to the decision of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to designate that planning authorisations issued under the Planning and Development Act 2000 to a water services authority shall continue in force as if granted to Irish Water for the unexpired period of the authorisation.

This statutory Instrument gives effect to the decision of the Minister of the Environment, Community and Local Government to transfer the property specified in the Order from each water services authority to Irish Water in accordance with section 12 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 .

These Regulations provide for the extension of the deadline for the submission of a completed application for the Water Conservation Grant to the Department of Social Protection from 8 October 2015 to 22 October 2015.

These Regulations are designed to promote the segregation and recovery of household food waste. They will, in particular, contribute to the achievement of the targets set out in article 5 of EU Directive 99/31/EC on the landfill of waste for the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste from landfill sites to composting and biogas plants and to other forms of authorised treatment. They will also increase the amount of food waste that is recovered. The regulations also form part of the implementation of measures set out in the national waste management policy: úA Resource Opportunity Waste Management Policy in Irelandù published in July 2012. The Regulations place obligations: 1. on waste collectors to have a separate collection service for household food waste; and, 2. on the householders who produce food waste to segregate such waste and make it available for separate collection. Producers may alternatively compost the waste on the premises where it arises under specified conditions or take it to authorised facilities such as civic amenity sites, composting sites, anaerobic digestion sites or for incineration. The regulations also give effect to Article 22 of the EU Waste Framework Directive Directive 2008/98/EC and are a measure aimed at giving effect to the waste hierarchy and the protection of the environment requirements of that Directive as well as meeting the requirements of Articles 10, 11 and 13 of the Directive.

This Order brings into operation certain general provisions of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 .

These Regulations provide for the amendment of the Water Services Act 2014 (Public Water Forum) Regulations 2015. The amendments are required in order to include unregistered customers, a representative of the trade union movement and a representative of the group water sector as members of the Forum. The maximum membership of the Forum is being increased to 32 and the CER is now able to appoint at least the same number of individual customer representatives as the number representing organisations.

These Regulations amend the European Communities (Water Policy) Regulations 2003 ( S.I. No. 722 of 2003 ) and the European Communities Environmental Objectives (Surface Waters) Regulations 2009 ( S.I. No. 272 of 2009 ). The purpose of the Regulations is to give effect to the requirements of Directive 2013/39/EU, Commission Decision (EU) 2013/480 of 20 September 2013 and Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/495 of 20 March 2015. The Regulations revise the environmental quality standards for a number of priority substances, add 12 new substances to the original list, and include additional environmental quality standards for biological quality elements. The Regulations also provide for the establishment of a watchlist to monitor concentrations of emerging pollutants and other substances of concern in the aquatic environment, to be updated every 24 months.

These Regulations are to provide for the opening of the mussel seed fishery from 5 September 2015.