COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF LUCAN / PALMERSTOWN / NORTH CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

QUESTION NO. 20

QUESTION: Councillor H. Farrell

To ask the Manager if routine air quality sampling is carried out in the LPNC area, where any test stations might be, and if data is publicly available for the last 3 years?

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council have two permanent air quality monitoring stations the closest to the LPNC area is located on the R120 adjacent to St Patricks Catholic Church. This monitor measures PM₁₀ and NO₂. Under Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe (CAFE) Directive the daily limit for PM₁₀ is 50 ug/m³. The limit is deemed breached if more than 35 exceedances occur during the year. The hourly limit for NO₂ is 200 ug/m³. The limit is deemed breached if more than 18 exceedances occur during the year. Neither of these figures were exceeded in 2025. These limits were not exceeded since the commissioning of this Lucan station in 2022.

The results from both the Lucan air quality monitoring station and our other station in Old Bawn, Tallaght are freely available to the public in real time and can be accessed at https://airquality.ie/.   The information is presented in a user friendly manner with maps and ratings in relation to the air quality index for health. The national network of air quality monitoring station data is available from this website.

In addition in 2021 and 2022 SDCC participated in a pilot scheme to monitor NO₂ levels. Diffusion tubes were installed at various location throughout the county which passively monitored for four week periods. Two of the locations were Esker Hills Willsbrook Park and Chapel Hill Lucan Village. Over the course of the project the results ranged from 7 to 29 micrograms/ m₃ which is noted to be indicative of low levels of atmospheric NO₂ and do not exceed EU NO₂ emission limit values.