Conference Chairperson & Opening Remarks

Overview of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026 (signed into law 12 March 2026) Which Reforms the EPA Licensing Process for Industrial Emissions and Waste Facilities in Ireland

Speaker: Sarah Robertson, Associate, AWN Consulting

• Four principal changes introduced by the Act:
  • Statutory timelines — mandatory decision deadlines with three timeline options
  • Limited licence review ("mini review") — a streamlined process for non-substantial changes that don't require EIA
  • General Binding Rules — template conditions for lower-risk activities
  • EIA derogation — allowing exemptions from Environmental Impact Assessment in emergency or defence situations
• Other notable changes including expanded EPA enforcement powers (past and future breaches)
• Practical considerations — challenges around co-application timing for complex industries, and the lack of precedent for the new mini-review process

Enforcement Trends, Priority Risks and Lessons from Licensed Sites

Speaker: Síofra Heffernan, Associate, A&L Goodbody LLP

• What current enforcement activity is telling operators
• How priority risks are identified and escalated
• Recurring issues that continue to drive EPA attention
• What site teams can learn from enforcement trends and inspection outcomes
• Practical lessons for reducing exposure before issues become formal action

Site Inspections, Unannounced Visits and Being Audit-Ready Every Day

Speaker: Dr Fergal Callaghan, Director, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), AWN Consulting

• What inspectors typically want to see on site
  
• Preparing staff, records and site systems for unannounced inspections
• Avoiding gaps between procedures and actual site practice
• Managing site visits, follow-up actions and responses
• Lessons from inspection trends across licensed sites

Emissions Monitoring, Sampling and Evidence You Can Stand Over

Speaker: Dr Fergal Callaghan, Director, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS), AWN Consulting

• Monitoring obligations under licence conditions
• Building confidence in sampling, testing and data quality
• Common mistakes in emissions monitoring and reporting
• Using guidance and standards to strengthen defensibility
• Turning monitoring into something more useful than a box-ticking exercise

Incident Response, Non-Compliance and Escalation Management on Site

Speaker: Tom Rowan, Managing Director, Rowan Engineering Consultants

• What happens when a site incident becomes a compliance issue
• Responding to exceedances, failures and unexpected events
• Internal escalation, decision-making and containment
• Recording incidents properly and managing communications
• Strengthening preparedness before the next problem lands

Environmental Reporting, Annual Returns and Getting the Basics Right

Tom Rowan, Managing Director, Rowan Engineering Consultants

• Reporting obligations that regularly create problems for operators
• Annual Environmental Reports, routine returns and record discipline
• Improving the quality and consistency of data submitted to the EPA
• Where reporting failures create wider compliance exposure
• Practical steps to reduce errors, omissions and late submissions

Site Operations, Storage Controls and Preventing Pollution Before It Starts

Speaker: Peter Hassett, BEng, MSc, CEng MIEI, Environment Lead, AECOM

• Operational controls that matter most on licensed sites
• Storage and movement of potentially polluting substances
• Housekeeping, containment and maintenance from a compliance perspective
• Aligning environmental controls with actual site operations
• Reducing routine failures that become repeat findings

The Cost of Non-Compliance: Liability, Reputation and Commercial Risk

Speaker: Michelle O'Donnell, MOD Consulting

• How failure to maintain compliance can trigger liability under the Environmental Liability Directive reinforcing the ‘’polluter pays’’ principle and driving remediation costs
• How breaches of the Do No Significant harm principle are increasing scrutiny on environmental performance and decision making
• How operational failures can escalate into enforcement action, prosecution and long-term environmental liability
• The knock-on impact of non-compliance on disclosures under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and wider regulatory obligations
• How environmental incidents can lead to reputational damage, investor scrutiny, loss of stakeholder confidence and loss of contracts across CSRD driven value chains.
• How poor environmental performance can affect contracts, supplier approval and commercial relationships across the value chain