The EPA is encouraging the public to report bad smells from industrial sites. 

The organisation has revealed that complaints from the public have dropped by nearly half in the last three-years. 

Officials few said they rely on the public to keep them informed and fear they are missing out on “great intelligence”. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, EPA spokesperson Pamela McDonnell said the organisation has published a list of sites with a poor record of compliance. 

“These are all sites that hold a licence from the EPA and it means the licence controls the emissions from the activity,” she said. 

“If they’re not complying with that licence, there’s doubt as to whether they are operating without causing pollution.

“Where sites have significant compliance issues and they’re on our priority list, we target them for enforcement.”

Ms McDonnell added that food and waste sites “tend to dominate” the list and have done so for many years. 

She continued that a bad smell “most certainly” is a breach of the licensing agreement. 

“All of our licences say that a licence site cannot have odours from its activity impacting on amenities beyond the site boundary,” she said. 

“So, what’s really important for us is when we receive complaints from people who are living close by to a licence site - because that gives us an idea of what’s actually happening in practice in the local area. 

“That gives us great intelligence in order to go and investigate that odour. 

“So, it’s very, very important that we get that picture and we always act of the odour complaints received.” 

She concluded that “the sooner we hear about an incident, the better”.

Main image: A woman covers her nose from a bad smell. Picture by: Alamy.com