The Green Party has said the reform of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be a key issue for the party in the event of negotiations with other political parties following the next general election.
The party claims major changes are needed in the structure of the agency, and that "fundamental" new legislation is needed.
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said the experience of many people was that the EPA was "fundamentally flawed".
The party said a key weakness was the lack of an independent appeals body for the licensing process for major industrial facilities such as incinerators, chemical factories and landfills.
It also complained that the directors who run the EPA did not come from a wide enough base.
Two of the directors came from business, while none had backgrounds in environmental charities or organisations, the party said.
Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle, who handed a petition into the Department of the Environment with more than 2,000 signatures calling for changes to the EPA, said more powers should be given to an advisory board for the EPA, which should include environmental and community representatives.
"This organisational restructuring would go some way to addressing the perception that exists in many local communities that the EPA is too close to the business lobby," Mr Boyle said.
The party said serious reform was also needed in relation to the penalties imposed on firms convicted of pollution.
Although fines of up to €15 million and jail terms were provided in the legislation, the average fine in 2005 was €2,559 per case.
The party said this was an insufficient deterrent for illegal operators who could make the same money from one load of illegally dumped waste.
The party said it would like to see the licensing and enforcement roles completely separated within the organisation.
Mr Sargent said he believed new legislation was needed to replace the existing laws governing the EPA, which were now 11 years old.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said there were no plans at present in relation to changing the structures of the EPA.