COMAH– Information for Upper and Lower Tier Establishments

MEM Region South has 12 Lower Tier and 17 Upper Tier establishments spread across Cork and Kerry

Each Upper Tier establishment has an External Emergency Plan which must be reviewed and tested every three years.

The Inter Agency Office, co-ordinates and assists the Principal Response Agencies (Local Competent Authorities) with these reviews and exercises. For more information on the establishments in Cork and Kerry visit www.hsa.ie https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Your_Industry/Chemicals/Legislation_Enforcement/COMAH/Information_to_the_Public/ 

Upper Tier Sites

What to expect when an External Emergency Plan is being reviewed?

Contact from IAEMO

The IAEMO will contact you prior to the review of the EEP with a request for information to assist in reviewing and updating the EEP. The initial contact will be made by a written letter and followed up with email correspondence.

Meetings

As part of the review you will be invited to attend meetings with the review team. These meetings are also used to plan the test of the EEP.

Public consultation

This is required under SI 209 of 2015 and takes place over a 4 week period during the review of the EEP.  The EEP available for public consultation is redacted to remove personal and sensitive information of staff at the site.

Site familiarisation visit and test of EEP

A site familiarisation visit usually takes place 1 week before the planned test of the EEP and takes approx 2 hours.

The test of the EEP,  takes place over a morning and will take the form of a walk though –talk through, tabletop or live exercise.

The IAEMO will liaise with you regarding both of these.

Debrief

As the review reaches completion the Exercise Team will meet with you to discuss the review and any recommendations or observations that have come to light during the review. For more information on what is involved in the review process see MEM Guidance Note 10. http://mem.ie/guidance-documents/ 

Lower Tier Sites

From time to time you will be contacted by the IAEMO to gather contact information and details for emergency response as well as organising familiarisation visits. You can prepare your establishment by ensuring staff are familiar with the process for making an ETHANE call (see resources tab).