Trevor Sargent
Question:530 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the progress being made to implement the Stockholm convention on POPs. [26740/01]
Written Answers. - International Conventions.
Ireland was one of the signatories to the UNEP Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, POPs, in Stockholm on 23 May 2001, and will work towards ratification of the convention in the context, inter alia, of the development by the EPA of national POPs emissions inventories and progress on the ratification of the 1998 UNECE, Aarhus, POPs protocol and of the convention by the European Union. The convention enters into force following ratification by 50 countries.
Those POPs which are, or were, manufactured for use as, for example, pesticides are banned for such use in Ireland under EU law. In the case of PCBs, primarily in use in electrical equipment, the Waste Management (Hazardous Waste) Regulations, 1998 require the provision of certain information to the EPA in respect of all such equipment and the ultimate safe disposal of PCBs as hazardous waste. The EPA's integrated pollution control and waste licensing systems already address any use of POPs for industrial processes and any relevant emissions from incineration and other relevant sources in a manner that is consistent with the requirements of the Stockholm convention.