First Previous (PART V Air Quality Management Plans and Standards) Next (FIRST SCHEDULE Pollutants to which Act Applies)

6 1987

AIR POLLUTION ACT, 1987

PART VI

Miscellaneous

Monitoring of air quality and emissions.

54. —(1) A local authority shall carry out, or cause to be carried out, such monitoring of—

(a) air quality, and

(b) the nature, extent and effects of emissions,

as the local authority may consider necessary for the performance of their functions under this Act or as they may be directed by the Minister to carry out.

(2) A local authority shall keep and maintain. or cause to be kept and maintained, such records of any monitoring carried out under subsection (1) as they consider reasonable and necessary.

(3) A local authority may require the occupier of any premises, other than a private dwelling, from which there is an emission to carry out such monitoring of the nature, extent and effect of the emission and of the air quality as the local authority consider necessary and to keep and to supply to the local authority such records of the monitoring as the local authority consider necessary.

(4) A local authority shall, if so directed by the Minister, supply to him or to any person specified by him at such intervals and in such manner as the Minister may direct records of any monitoring carried out under this section.

(5) Where an air quality standard applies to their functional area or to any part thereof, the local authority shall, in relation to the area of application of the air quality standard, make such arrangements for monitoring as may be necessary so that the local authority can determine if the air quality standard is being complied with.

(6) The Minister may give directions to a local authority in relation to—

(a) the number and location of places within an area at which monitoring is to be carried out,

(b) the manner in which sampling, measuring and analysing for the purposes of this section is to be carried out,

(c) the equipment to be used for the purposes of such sampling, measuring or analysing,

and the local authority shall comply with every such direction of the Minister.

(7) The Minister may monitor, or make such arrangements for the monitoring of, air pollution as seem to him to be necessary or desirable.

Power of court to authorise works.

55. —(1) If the occupier of any premises is unable, without the consent of some other person, to carry out works which he is required to carry out in order to comply with the provisions of this Act, and such other person withholds his consent to the carrying out of the works, the occupier may apply to the District Court for an order under this section.

(2) If, on the hearing of an application under subsection (1), the District Court determines that the consent of the other person has been unreasonably withheld, the District Court may, in its discretion, deem the consent to have been given and direct the occupier of the premises to carry out the works.

(3) If the occupier of any premises is required to carry out, pursuant to this Act, works on the premises, and such occupier considers that the cost of such works should be borne, in whole or in part, by the owner of the premises or some other person who has an interest therein, or by the owner or occupier of an adjoining premises, he may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction for an order directing that the whole, or such part as may be specified in the order, of the cost of the works be borne by, as the case may be, the owner of the premises, the other person interested therein or the owner or occupier of the adjoining premises; and the court shall make such order on the hearing of the application as it considers just having regard to all the circumstances of the case.

Application of Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963.

56. —(1) Where a licence under this Act is granted in relation to industrial plant and a permission under Part IV of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 , has been granted in respect of the same plant, any conditions attached to that permission shall, in so far as they relate in any way to air pollution, cease to have effect.

(2) The grant of a permission under Part IV of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963 , in relation to any premises shall not prejudice, affect or restrict in any way the application of any provision of this Act to such premises.

Transitional provisions in relation to alkali, etc. work.

57. —(1) The provisions of the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act, 1906, in relation to emissions shall, notwithstanding the repeal of that Act by this Act, apply to every relevant work until a licence under this Act is granted in respect of the work.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), the provisions of section 9 of the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act, 1906, in relation to the registration of works shall not apply to a relevant work.

(3) A local authority in whose functional area a relevant work is situated shall, on and after the commencement of this section, be responsible for ensuring that it is carried on in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1).

(4) In this section “relevant work” means existing industrial plant which is either—

(a) an alkali work within the meaning of the Alkali, etc. Works Regulation Act, 1906, or

(b) a work listed in the First Schedule to that Act.

Transitional provisions in relation to certain licensable works.

58. —The provisions of section 10 of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act, 1962 , and of the Control of Atmospheric Pollution, (Licensing) Regulations, 1985, shall, notwithstanding the repeal by this Act of that Act and those regulations, apply to existing industrial plant which is used for the purpose of any trade, works or process within the meaning of those regulations until a licence under this Act is granted in respect of the plant concerned.

Savers.

59. —(1) Nothing in this Act shall legalise any act or default that would, but for this Act, be deemed to be a nuisance, or otherwise be contrary to law, or deprive any person of any remedy to which he would have been entitled if this Act had not been passed.

(2) A person shall not be entitled solely by reason of the grant of a licence under this Act to construct, alter or operate industrial plant or to carry on any other operation or activity.

(3) Save for section 28 (4), nothing in this Act shall affect the operation of the Safety in Industry Acts, 1955 and 1980, in relation to factories or to any other premises to which those Acts apply.