Chemicals Act 2008 [No. 13 of 2008] & Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (No. 32 of 2010)

Introduction

The purpose of the Chemicals Acts 2008 & 2010 is to provide for the implementation and enforcement of certain EU Regulations and Directives. These include the REACH Regulation, the Detergents Regulation, the Regulation on the Import and Export of Dangerous Chemicals, the CLP Regulation (Classification, Labelling and Packaging of substances and mixtures) and the Seveso Directive on control of major accident hazards involving dangerous substances.

This is framework legislation that enables the enforcement of EU Regulations which are directly applicable and the making of regulations to give effect to EU measures in this area which are in the form of Directives.

The Act sets out the national authorities that enforce the EU Regulations and provides for cooperation between national authorities, and between national authorities and authorities of other EU member states. The national authorities set out in the Act include:

• The Health and Safety Authority [HSA],
• the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as regards pesticides under the REACH Regulation and the Rotterdam Regulation on the export and import of dangerous chemicals,
• the Revenue Commissioners for the purposes of Article 17 of the Rotterdam Regulation on the export and import of dangerous chemicals,
• the Environmental Protection Agency in respect of the prevention of environmental pollution under REACH, and
• the National Poisons Information Centre of Ireland for the purposes of receiving medical information under Article 9.3 of the Detergents Regulation.

The Act aims to further the Better Regulation agenda by streamlining a number of pieces of existing legislation in the area of chemicals enforcement into one Act.

Relevant Documents:

1. Chemicals Act 2008 (No. 13 of 2008) (PDF, 391kb)
2. Press Release
3. Regulatory Impact Analysis (PDF, 205KB)
4. Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (PDF 46.6KB) | An tAcht Ceimiceán (Leasú) 2010 (PDF, 58KB)
5. Chemicals (Amendment) Act 2010 (Commencement) Order 2010 (PDF 96.9KB)
6. Regulatory Impact Analysis (PDF 211KB)