The Environmental Protection Agency has reported that environmental compliance at licensed industrial sites was good last year, but persistent challenges remain in the food and waste sectors.
Throughout 2025, EPA officers visited 656 individual sites and carried out 1,681 inspections.
This was 28% more than in 2024.
Overall, 96% of inspections were unannounced, with 21 different waste and industry sectors visited.
About 8% were triggered by complaints from the public.
Air monitoring was carried out during 116 inspections, while water or effluent samples were taken in 533 cases.
The North Cork Co-Op Creamery in Kanturk was inspected 50 times by the EPA in 2025.
This was significantly more than any other industrial site in the country.
These inspections at the creamery concerned wastewater discharges into the adjacent Allow River, a tributary of the Blackwater, where the largest fish kill in the history of the State occurred last August.
The EPA and Inland Fisheries Ireland confirmed, after a major investigation, that discharges from the creamery were not responsible, in any way, for the fish kill.
Nevertheless, earlier this year, the farmer-owned North Cork Co-Op announced that it was ceasing production and closing the plant because of repeated suspensions of its wastewater discharge license, which was essential for its continued operation.
Arrow Group, the Queally family-owned food and drink company in Co Kildare, was inspected by EPA officers over bad odours on 18 occasions in 2025.
This made Arrow the second most visited licenced site on the EPA list.
ABP meat processors in Waterford, and Eras Eco, a waste treatment and recycling firm based in Youghal, Co Cork, were the joint third most visited industrial sites.
They had 17 EPA inspections each, mainly for bad smells and odour.
Although the food and drink sector receives the most complaints, mainly about odour and noise, sites in the waste sector had the highest rates of non-compliance with EPA licence conditions.
In total last year, the EPA received 1,181 complaints from the public. Most of these concerned odour emissions.
The food and drink sector accounts for 51 per cent of all complaints.
Just five sites accounted for nearly two-thirds of all complaints received from the public.
The EPA said it has investigated these sites and is taking appropriate enforcement actions.
Ten licensed sites were identified as National Priority Sites for environmental enforcement in 2025.
The EPA said these ten priority sites accounted for 39% of all complaints, 12% of all non-compliances detected, 8% of all site inspections, and 13% of new investigations last year.
