Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Eimear Cotter:

I will keep going through them. Forestry is the third most significant pressure and the fourth is discharges from urban wastewater. We have done extensive work on characterising and understanding what those pressures are. Urban wastewater discharges are impacting on about 200 water bodies. That number has been going down with the investment we have seen over recent years by Uisce Éireann but 200 water bodies is still too much, with 26 towns and villages still experiencing discharge of raw sewerage and that still ongoing into the environment. We have not shied away from calling that out when we need to in terms of understanding the impacts on water quality. That work is there. It is extensive. It is not really about focusing on any one particular sector.