Environmental Noise

The Local Authorities of the Dublin Agglomeration (Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council, Wicklow County Council and Kildare County Council) have prepared a Noise Action Plan to cover the whole of the Dublin agglomeration. The Noise Action Plan has been informed by and is based on the Strategic Noise Maps which were prepared for the agglomeration of Dublin in 2022 and which cover transport (road and rail) and industry related environmental noise sources. 

The Noise Action Plan is required under the Environmental Noise Directive (“END”) (2002/49/EC) which was transported into Irish law through the European Communities (Environmental Noise) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 549/2018) and the European Communities (Environmental Noise) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. 663/2021). The regulations require Strategic Noise Maps and Noise Action Plans to be made or revised every five years. 

This Noise Action Plan covers Round 4 of the implementation of the END. The Noise Action Plan was completed and issued to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) on the 18th of July 2024 and will subsequently issued by the EPA to the EU Commission by the end of January 2025. 

The Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires local authorities to draw-up plans of action which will include measures to "address priorities which may be identified by the exceeding of any relevant limit value or by other criteria chosen by the Member State and apply in particular to the most important areas as established by strategic noise mapping."  It also requires plans to identify and protect “quiet areas against an increase in noise." 

This Noise Action Plan covers the whole of the Dublin Agglomeration which includes the complete or partial administrative area of the six Local Authorities mentioned above. Readers are therefore referred to the following structure of the Noise Action Plan to help direct them to the relevant section(s) that may be applicable to their area and interest. 

• Chapters 1 to 9: Background and general to the Agglomeration as a whole. 

• Chapter 10: Dublin City Council specific. 

• Chapter 11: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council specific. 

• Chapter 12: Fingal County Council specific. 

• Chapter 13: Kildare County Council specific. 

• Chapter 14: South Dublin County Council specific. 

• Chapter 15: Wicklow County Council specific. 

 The Noise Action Plan, associated maps SEA and AA reports are available to read below, or you can download the PDF form the related documents section below.