Galway City Council one of Ireland’s greenest councils

GALWAY City Council has been deemed one of Ireland’s greenest councils, with Galway County Council just outside the top ten performers.

A report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assessed the performance of all 31 local authorities against 15 National Enforcement Priorities (NEPs) in 2025.

Each targeted the most significant environmental risks and compliance challenges across the country. The NEPs can be broken into four categories: waste, water, air and noise as well as governance process.

Among the areas councils are graded on are how they deal with household and commercial waste, solid fuels, local water quality pressures and their ability to record and report environmental data.

The city council scored a strong or excellent rating in the 13 NEPs, the other two being non applicable (Water: Farmland and Farmyards).

That put them on par with the performances of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin, who met the required EPA standards in all 15 NEPs.

Of the 13 NEPs, the city council achieved a strong rating in ten and were deemed excellent by the EPA on their ability to deal with solid fuels, their planning for environmental inspections and time spent recording and reporting data.

Galway County Council placed just outside the top ten performers, recording a score of strong or excellent in 13 of the 15 NEPs.

It was rated excellent in four NEPs, farmlands and farmyards, which measured their ability to deal with slurry/soiled water collection and storage as well as fertiliser spreading, solid fuels, and data recording and reporting.

While meeting the required EPA standards in 13 of the NEPs, the report showed two areas where the council required improvements.

Their performance towards environmental noise directives was deemed limited by the EPA, while they received a rating of moderate when judged on their ability to deal with matters relating to construction and demolition material waste.