National air quality monitoring stations are operated, maintained and monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, under the ambient air quality monitoring programme. My Department has provided funding for a significant upgrade to the network in recent years and the number of monitoring stations has increased from 29 in 2017 to 114 today. The expansion will be complete when the remaining stations are connected in 2023, which will bring the final number of stations to 116.
All stations collect air quality data for a range of pollutants to provide information to the public and for assessment against European legal limit values and World Health Organization guideline values. The EPA produces an annual report on air quality in Ireland that provides an overview of our air quality and key issues that impact on it. Details of the locations of all monitoring stations currently in operation along with real-time and historic data from each station can be found at the website, www.airquality.ie.
The LIFE EMERALD project, which commenced in 2021, will use the information from our monitoring network to develop a modelled air quality map of the whole country, filling in the gaps between the current stations. As such, no additional permanent stations will be required, with funding being focused instead on measures required to reduce the drivers of pollution, including those contained in the report of the urban transport-related air pollution working group, which was established to consider the key actions required to reduce transport-related pollution in our urban areas.