The food and drink industry continues to have the highest level of complaints and prosecutions for breaches of environmental pollution regulations, according to the latest report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
More than half of complaints (53 per cent) from the public in 2001 related to the food and drink industry, while animal slaughtering and rendering plants continued to be the single greatest source of complaints and prosecutions within that sector.
Half of the prosecutions also related to the food and drink sector, according to the agency's latest report on its Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) licensing activities in 2001.
Under the IPC system, nearly 600 firms which produce or handle environmental pollutants as part of their operations are licensed by the EPA and subject to inspections and voluntary reporting.
Companies which breach their licences, or operate without one, are subject to prosecution through the courts.
According to the report, the EPA carried out 1,661 visits to various IPC-licensed facilities in 2001.
However, of the 59 full audits carried out by the agency, only 11 firms were found to be fully compliant, while 15 per cent of the firms audited were found to be "in serious breach" of their pollution licences.
According to the EPA report, there were 1,737 complaints from the public in 2001 in relation to IPC-licensed operations, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year.
More than 1,000 of these complaints related to just 15 facilities. Premier Proteins, a rendering plant in Co Galway, had the single biggest number of complaints, 207, the overwhelming majority of them relating to odour at the plant.
Western Proteins, another rendering plant in Co Mayo, was the subject of 137 complaints, most of them relating to odour, while Irish Ispat, the steel plant on Cork Harbour, now closed, had 127 complaints from the public, mostly relating to atmospheric emissions.
The EPA took 12 successful prosecutions through the District Courts for breaches of pollution-licence regulations in 2001, resulting in €119,382 in fines against the companies.
Kildare Chilling, a meat plant in Kildare town, was fined the single largest sum, €33,043, in Kildare District Court in February 2001.
The firm was convicted of giving the EPA false and misleading monitoring results from emissions to a sewer and for failure to comply with its IPC licence following an audit by the EPA.
Other companies convicted of non-compliance included Irish Sugar PLC at its plant in Carlow; a timber sawmill, T&D Standish (Roscrea) Ltd; Monery By-Products, a rendering plant in Co Cavan; Dairygold Co-op in Mitchelstown; and the drinks firm Showerings in Clonmel.
The EPA report noted, however, that efforts had been made by each company to rectify the problems which had led to the original pollution breaches.