Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the upcoming climate action plan. I agree with Deputy Devlin's comments on the S2S. It is very important infrastructure that will be very welcome and a huge asset to Dublin.

The disastrous events across Europe this summer have brought home the painful reality of what lies ahead as the climate continues to change for the worse.

The impact it will have on our day-to-day lives becomes clear when we see flash floods killing nearly 200 people in Germany and wildfires ravaging through Greece and Italy, burning hundreds and thousands of homes and leaving a trail of destruction and misery behind. Even here in Ireland, we had a number of wildfires that we struggled to bring under control. Howth was ablaze for almost a month and the fire there threatened to wipe out a number of homes on several occasions. These disastrous events will become more and more common as the years pass and we fail to tackle climate change effectively.

Meaningful change and just transition seem to be completely missing from this Government's approach to climate change. We are not just failing when it comes to just transition or the need to reduce domestic CO² emissions; we are also failing Irish coastal communities which, on a frequent basis, have raw sewage flowing into their swimming areas. Sandymount strand is a site of enormous value to the many thousands of people across Dublin who use it for recreation. Sandymount and Dollymount are important biosphere sites of international importance and are recognised by UNESCO. At the mouth of Dublin Bay we have a wastewater treatment plant that was at capacity from the very first day construction was completed. When it rains, raw sewage is discharged. As we live in Ireland, that means there are regular discharges of raw sewage into Dublin Bay. That has serious consequences for people enjoying the sea, including swimmers and the rowing community. As we enter the winter months, increased rainfall will result in more frequent raw sewage leaks into Dublin Bay. Sea swimming has never been so popular in Dublin Bay. The Half Moon swimming club, which is located along the walk to the Poolbeg Lighthouse, is really popular. Over lockdown, sea swimming has increased dramatically in popularity, something that is likely to continue. It is a really positive activity and we must do everything we can to protect it. Allowing raw sewage into the sea is not doing that.

Ringsend has two rowing clubs, St. Patrick's and Stella Maris, both of which put a huge amount of time and energy into training and into training children. Both of these clubs have contacted me to express concern after their members have seen raw sewage floating past them on the River Liffey. How is it acceptable in 2021 that we allow this polluting of Dublin Bay to continue? The Government cannot stand idly by and let the leaks continue while we wait for upgrading works to be completed. I accept that there are plans to increase the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant. Even when the construction of the extension is complete, however, it will still be at capacity, which means we will still have raw sewage being discharged into Dublin Bay after the extension. We need a short-term and a medium-term engineering solution to ensure our swimming areas are not no-go areas. The poor methods of communication between Dublin City Council and the EPA to the public when it comes to swimming bans on our beaches and shorelines need to be urgently addressed because realistically they are dated and ineffective. If you want to find out whether there is a ban or see what the water quality is, you have to dig into websites and so on. The public just wants to go down and have a clear message of whether it is it safe to swim, and it should be in real time. We need swimming bans to be publicised in local media so that the public knows whether it is safe to swim.

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