Donegal County Council has received a strong overall assessment for its environmental enforcement performance in the latest EPA report.
The Environmental Protection Agency has published its review of local authorities’ environmental enforcement work in 2025, assessing performance against national priorities targeting key environmental risks and compliance issues.
The county has shown a improvement in its environmental enforcement performance, with 80% of areas assessed rated either strong or excellent.
The latest EPA review of local authorities’ 2025 performance assessed four key areas; waste enforcement, water enforcement, air and noise enforcement, and governance processes.
In Donegal, four areas were rated excellent, eight were rated strong, and three received a moderate rating.
Excellent ratings were awarded for solid fuel enforcement, air quality monitoring and data use, planning for environmental inspections and compliance, and recording and reporting of inspection, compliance and enforcement data.
Strong ratings were given for areas including tackling illegal waste activity, construction and commercial waste, plastics and producer responsibility initiatives, agricultural pressures, water quality issues, and local air and noise investigations.
The three areas rated moderate were household waste, agricultural pressures relating to farmland, and the Environmental Noise Directive.
The EPA report marks an improvement for Donegal County Council, which was previously identified as a low-performing local authority in 2024.
The full report is available HERE.
