Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott has hit out at the Environmental Protection Agency today for threatending to sue her.
The disability rights campaigner has called for the agency to be disbanded for failing to crack down on industrial pollution
"I have said nothing that I have not observed personally or that has not been told to me many times over by the people affected and ignored by the Environmental Proetection Agency (EPA)."
She said the agency was licensing companies who were polluters and was failing to listen to the concerns of ordinary people.
"I will stand by every part of my statement and if they want to go ahead and sue me, let them sue me.
Kathy Sinnott, Independent MEP
The Irish people deserve an environmental protection agency with their best interests at heart".
The EPA was established in 1993 as an independent public body to measure air and water quality, to regulate activities that have significant potential for pollution, and to enforce environment law.
It said it absolutely rejected the "unfounded and inaccurate comments" by Ms Sinnott, who is a member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee.
"The EPA will be taking this matter further and will be consulting our legal team in relation to Ms. Sinnott's efforts to damage the reputation of the EPA," said a spokeswoman.
She added that Ms Sinnott was "clearly mis-informed" on the issues and had not met with the EPA to seek clarification.
Ms Sinnott said she had received large numbers of complaints about the agency from people in her South constituency and outside it.
"What is apparent from my numerous discussions with people on this issue is that people are feeling angry, frustrated and unprotected by this agency," she said.
She said the EPA had granted a licence to Standish Sawmills in Offaly last week, yet at the same time was prosecuting the company for breaching its current integrated pollution control (IPC) license.
"This cannot be an oversight on the part of the EPA as the residents of this area were at all times very vocal in their objections to the workings of this company's operations. Where is the logic or reason to this?"
She said the EPA had led a €5.5 million investigation into animal and human health problems in Askeaton, County Limerick which had cleared industry of any wrongdoing and laid the blame on farmers for causing their own problem.
In Clare, she said the EPA had spent months ignoring complaints from residents about the Schwarz Pharma pharmaceutical factory in Shannon before it took action.
Last March, a district court judge deemed the case too serious to be heard at District Court level after hearing evidence that air emissions from the plant last August containing suspected cancer-causing substances were found to be 36 times the legal limit.
In a two-page statement, the EPA said it was untrue to say that it was licensing polluters.
"The EPA Act, 1992 specifically prohibits the EPA from granting a licence if emissions from the activity would cause pollution."
In relation to Standish Sawmills in Offaly, the agency said a revised licence with more stringent conditions had been issued after groundwater contamination was discovered.
"Since the discovery of the contamination, remediation has been taking place and it is working successfully."
In relation to the investigation of health problems in Askeaton, it said this had involved the examination of two affected farms, medical records, soil, air, hay and silage samples.
"Following this investigation, it was found that there was no evidence that environmental pollution was the cause of the problems that had been observed in Askeaton.
The EPA has nine successful prosecutions so far this year, with a further 19 cases pending.