Environment Agency to have Ardcavan HQ

March 1994

The former ABS Technology plant in Ardcavan has been identified as the temporary headquarters for the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it was announced last week.

This has ended months of intense speculation regarding the siting of the agency in Wexford. The deal was concluded following weeks of negotiation between the agency and local auctioneering firm, Kehoe & Associates.

Under the lease agreement, the EPA will take over 10,000 sq. ft. of office space in the former ABS Technology building. They will occupy the reception area, a substantial amount of the ground floor, and all of the first floor.

It is understood that the lease is for a threeyear period, during which time the EPA will be looking for a site to construct a purpose-built office block as near as possible to the town centre.

Approximately 30 staff will come to Wexford later this month, but it is expected that up to 80 people, including scientists and economists, will be working with the EPA in the future.

Eight of the staff being re-located at the Ardcavan headquarters originally hail from County Wexford, including director Marie Sherwood, who says the staff are happy to return to their home county.

‘Originally from the four corners of the county, one could say that they are being repatriated,’ she remarked.

The EPA was formally established in July of last year, and has been operating from premises in Dublin. It has a wide range of powers and functions, including responsibility for licensing and controlling activities which carry a serious risk of environmental pollution, such as big agricultural enterprises.