Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Environmental Report prepared in support of the
National Planning Framework states:
Ireland has no hazardous waste landfill, and limited capacity in other available infrastructure. Just one landfill has the ability to take and process some contaminated land. This has implications for the levels of contaminated waste generated and whether excess waste would need to be exported.
“Whilst development on brownfield land is broadly positive insofar as it reduces the need for greenfield development which may be an important community/ social assets in such cities, there is potential to encounter contaminated material that could indirectly impact on Biodiversity, Flora and Fauna, Soils and Water through the remediation process. The volume and nature of the contamination will be an important factor to consider given the limited end-of-life solutions for some contaminated material.”
Challenges highlighted by the Ireland Brownfield Network:
• The absence from the Irish planning process of a formal brownfield land assessment and management regime for the majority of brownfield sites. Only sites licensed by the EPA are subject to appropriate assessment and management.
• A complex and lengthy waste licensing and permitting system applicable to the remediation and reuse of contaminated soils and groundwater and construction and demolition (C&D) waste.
• A lack of suitable waste infrastructure for managing contaminated soils and C&D waste and an over-reliance on the export of wastes out of Ireland.
• Limited application of recovery and reuse options for low-level contaminated soils and treated soils, compounded by the complex consenting process and limited application of End-of-Waste status to soils as defined in the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) has recorded approximately 14,000 brownfield sites (former industrial use)
https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/publications/historical-landuse
Q: is there a similar ROI map ?
Local authority reporting on brownfield sites:
Cork, commissioned major analysis of sites
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40063388.html
Dublin, assessed 82 sites