INSPIRE Directive

INSPIRE, the acronym for the INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe is a European Commission directive that aims at establishing a pan European infrastructure of geographic data to support environmental policy. It will enable the sharing of environmental spatial information among public sector organisations and better facilitate public access to spatial information across Europe by means of an on-line service offering data and metadata. The directive came into force on 15 May 2007 and will be implemented in various stages, with full implementation required by 2019.

As the National Mapping Agency responsible for reference geographical information in Ireland , Ordnance Survey Ireland is today very much involved in the implementation of the directive and will fully conform to all legislative requirements according to the agreed INSPIRE roadmap as outlined on http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.cfm

For further information, each member state designated a Contact Point, to be responsible for providing regular information about the implementation of INSPIRE in their country and report on behalf of the Member State to the Commission. The contact point in Ireland is the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government http://www.environ.ie

In addition, the policy group of the Irish Spatial Data Infrastructure is coordinating development of Ireland’s national spatial data infrastructure and any subsequent policy decisions will form part of Irelands response to the INSPIRE directive. For further updates please view http://www.irishspatialstrategy.ie/isdi