There are concerning localised issues leading to poor air quality, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned.
It has launched its annual air quality report for 2021.
It shows air quality in Ireland is generally good and compares favourably with many of our European neighbours.
However it says there are concerning localised issues which lead to poor air quality.
It found that while Ireland met EU legal air quality limits in 2021, it did not meet health-based World Health Organisation (WHO) air quality guidelines for a number of pollutants.
This included particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (N02), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3).
It said this was due to the burning of solid fuel in towns and villages and traffic in cities.
The EPA said: "Poor air quality has a negative impact on people’s health and there are an estimated 1,300 premature deaths in Ireland per year due to particulate matter in our air.
Source: EPA"Air monitoring results in 2021 from EPA stations across Ireland show that fine particulate matter (PM2.5),mainly from burning solid fuel in our homes, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) mainly from road traffic, remain the main threats to good air quality".
The EPA has said Ireland and Europe should move towards achieving the health-based WHO air quality guidelines.
And it said the planned National Clean Air Strategy for Ireland "needs to be published and fully implemented."
While local authorities should also provide more resources to increase air enforcement activities.
Pat Byrne is EPA programme manager.
He said: "Air quality in Ireland is generally good, however, there are localised issues that are impacting negatively on air quality and our health.
"In our towns and villages monitoring identifies high levels of particulate matter associated with burning solid fuels and in our larger cities high levels of nitrogen dioxide is associated with road traffic.
"There are options and solutions to help improve the air we breathe.
"Changes we make to how we heat our homes and finding alternative ways to travel can immediately impact our local air quality".
