EPA licence search in Ireland for IE, IPC and waste licences

EPA licence search in Ireland

For an EPA licence search in Ireland, start at the Search for a Licence/Permit page. Or open LEAP Online for the EPA licence register: the licence document and the enforcement records.

EPA licensing in Ireland covers IE, IPC, waste and wastewater discharge licences. Council waste facility permits are not in that search. They sit in a separate register, linked from the EPA search page.

How to search LEAP Online

The EPA's LEAP Online instructions set out three steps:

1. Accept the terms and conditions.
2. Enter a licence number, company name or facility name.
3. Click the licence number to open the Licence Dashboard and reach the records.

If you don't know the reference number, open the EPA's My Local Environment map. It can show an organisation's name, location and reference number. The EPA tells readers to enter that reference in LEAP.

The dashboard holds more than the licence itself. According to the EPA, LEAP publishes licences and applications, site visit reports, licensee returns, incidents, complaints, non-compliance records, compliance investigations, meeting records and third-party correspondence. The licence document and the enforcement history are separate jobs.

You can download content from LEAP. There's no print function, which is awkward if you need a paper audit file. The EPA recommends your browser's print function instead.

How far back the records go

The EPA's public access page explains what is online. For IE and IPC, application documents go back to December 2004, plus all inspectors' reports and all licences issued to date. Waste application files go back to December 2004. Wastewater discharge applications start in December 2007.

Older supporting files may not be online. The same page explains public-terminal access to application files, and gives licensing@epa.ie if you need to arrange a hardcopy viewing.

What IE, IPC and waste licences cover

These licences cover a site's activity and its emissions, not a product or substance approval. An IE licence covers specified industrial and agricultural activities in the First Schedule to the EPA Act. The class was introduced by the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). Some activities need one only above set thresholds. The licence carries strict conditions on how the activity runs, and carrying on a licensable activity without one is an offence. Some waste activities now fall under IE licensing. So a waste site's licence may not say "waste" on it.

An IPC licence (Integrated Pollution Control) is a single licence covering a facility's emissions and its environmental management. The applicant has to satisfy the EPA that emissions won't cause a significant adverse environmental impact. Older files sometimes say IPPC. Don't treat IE, IPC and IPPC as the same wording on every file.

An EPA waste licence is also a single licence for emissions and environmental management. Under the Waste Management Act, the EPA licenses landfills, transfer stations, hazardous waste disposal, ship recycling and other significant waste recovery or disposal activities. Not every transfer station or recovery operation needs an EPA waste licence.

For any of the three, read the actual licence for the authorised activity and its conditions. Then check the compliance records separately.

Waste facility permit search

The EPA explains that a waste activity can be exempt, need a waste or IPC licence, need a waste facility permit, or need a certificate of registration. Local authorities grant and enforce the permits and certificates held by private operators. The EPA issues certificates of registration to local authorities for smaller-scale waste activities.

An EPA waste licence search won't find a council permit. The EPA's search hub links the other registers:

• the NWCPO waste facility register, for a waste facility permit
• the waste collection permit search, for collectors

The search hub also has a separate link for certificates of registration. A collection permit lets a business collect waste. It doesn't let it operate a facility. Offaly County Council is the nominated authority that processes new collection permit applications. If a register won't load or shows nothing, contact the relevant authority.

An empty result doesn't prove the site has no authorisation.

Which "discharge licence" do you need?

The right register for a discharge licence depends on what is discharged and where it goes:

Section 4 of the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act 1977 provides for council licences. It has exemptions, plus annotations for EPA-licensed and waste-licensed activities, so not every discharge to water needs a separate council licence. EPA-licensed sites that discharge to a sewer must still consult Uisce Éireann, which defines trade effluent as liquid waste from business premises to public sewers. That consultation is not an instruction to take out a second stand-alone licence.

A FOG licence covers what a restaurant or other food business sends to the public sewer, and Uisce Éireann's guidance also deals with grease traps. It has nothing to do with an EPA waste licence.

There is also a registration route for qualifying small wastewater discharges. Under the EPA's guidance, Uisce Éireann will apply to register them, and those discharges follow general binding rules. Check that guidance for eligibility.

Reading the record correctly

The EPA publishes most LEAP records 30 calendar days after they are created. A recent incident or complaint may not show yet. And an application on file isn't a granted licence, while a granted licence tells you nothing about current compliance. For that, open the site visit reports and non-compliance records.

RegAffairs AI's answer on finding an EPA licence gives a cited overview. The licence document in LEAP remains the official record.