This report was prepared by the OECD Public Governance Directorate (GOV), under the leadership of Marcos Bonturi, Director, and of Nick Malyshev, Head of GOV’s Regulatory Policy Division. It was co‑ordinated and drafted by Martha Baxter and James Drummond, under the guidance of Anna Pietikainen. Alexis Durand contributed to the draft and Shelly Hsieh carried out initial preparatory work for the review. Substantive comments were provided by Nick Malyshev and Eugene Mazur, Policy Analyst at the Environment Directorate. The work received the encouragement and support of Marcos Bonturi, and Irène Hors, Deputy Director of GOV. Jennifer Stein co-ordinated the editorial process and Andrea Uhrhammer provided editorial support.
Three peer reviewers provided extensive input and feedback throughout the development of the review: Jonas Landstad Fjeldheim, Strategic Advisor to the Director, Norwegian Environment Agency; Ana Barreto Albuquerque, Member of the Executive Board of Portugal’s Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority (ERSAR); and Ian Tait, Director of Network Regulation, Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS), United Kingdom. Members of the OECD Network of Economic Regulators (NER) discussed a draft of the report during their meeting on 5 November 2019.
The report would not have been possible without the support of the EPA and its staff. The team would in particular like to thank the following colleagues for their assistance in collecting data and information, organising the team’s missions to Ireland and providing feedback at different stages of the review: Laura Burke, Director-General; Gerard O’Leary, Deputy Director-General and Director of the Office of Communications and Corporate Services; Eimear Cotter, Director of the Office of Environmental Sustainability; Matt Crowe, Director of the Office of Evidence and Assessment; Micheál Lehane, Director of the Office of Radiological Protection and Environmental Monitoring; Tom Ryan, Director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement; Darragh Page, Programme Manager, Shirley Murphy, OEE Support Team and Michelle Leahy, Office of the Director-General. Interviews and comments from the various EPA Offices, government, industry and civil society stakeholders during the review process contributed to the analysis presented in the report.