Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives from SOS Dublin Bay and others from right across the bay. I have had the pleasure of engaging with them and that is why I wanted to take this Bill myself. I very much appreciate the work of Deputy Bacik and her commitment. We can work together. There are some aspects of the Bill that might be conflicting, and I will outline those. I am not in any way raising them to criticise the legislation as they will comprise an important part of the discussion. The Bill will progress through Second Stage and then it will be up to Deputy Bacik, as ceannaire of Páirtí an Lucht Oibre, to take it to Committee Stage. We will work constructively with the Deputy.

As the Deputy outlined, the Bill comprises the establishment of a new committee in the form of the Dublin Bay authority, with the purpose of preserving the character of Dublin Bay. We all share that objective. The Bill also seeks to make a specific amendment to the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008. I will talk about that in a little more detail, to fully understand the objective and purpose of that, and what impact it may have on the current EU directives. We will need to work through that.

As the Minister with responsibility for this as well as for local government, I recognise and acknowledge that the protection of Dublin Bay is absolutely vital. It is crucial and it is well intentioned within this Bill. Deputy Ó Ríordáin mentioned the issues with regard to untreated sewage in Howth. Thankfully, we are seeing a reduction in that right across the bay. We are seeing the second treatment plant being commissioned in Ringsend and the work being done there to further improve the water quality. I have visited the plant but yes we need to do more. We have a €6 billion capital plan now for Irish Water that is agreed in the baseline that will allow it to continue with these major projects to ensure that leakage does not happen.

There are some issues. I will be specific about them and maybe we can discuss them further and tease them through on Committee Stage. On amending the bathing water regulations in the manner proposed, I understand why this would be appealing at first glance, and I mean this in a positive way. I am not sure that as it is written would be the appropriate mechanism. I will explain why with a couple of points.

On the establishment of a new body and the function of a new authority, the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly already has sufficient powers to set up such a committee as it sees fit under regulation No. 41 of the Local Government Act 1991, and the establishment order of 2014. To be fair, Teachta Bacik has outlined this. The assembly is required by the same order to "establish a strategic planning area committee in respect of each strategic planning area within the region". The Deputy referred to Fingal. Fingal County Council has set up a specific coastal strategic policy committee, SPC. I say this just so Deputies are aware of this too.

The area identified in the proposed Private Members' Bill overlaps with strategic areas listed in that regional assembly's establishment order. With the establishment of a new authority, this overlapping would have to be dealt with. On the face of it, other aspects of the special committee proposed by this Bill seem to also duplicate the work of the Dublin Bay biosphere partnership. This is important because that partnership was established to facilitate the functions of the UNESCO biosphere reserve designation for Dublin Bay. We would have to figure out how that would work in partnership. The partnership works on: the conservation of biodiversity; cultural diversity; promotion of sustainable development; and support for research, monitoring, education and training. The partnership comprises Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council, the Dublin Port Company, Fáilte Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

I have another concern around amending the regulation of the bathing water regulations in this manner, but I believe we could work this through and I do not believe it is the intention of the Bill. I am already taking action to protect winter and summer bathing in Dublin Bay, and to be fair I have raised this indirectly with the Deputy. The national bathing water expert group has looked specifically at year-round swimming, which is incredibly popular. I see it myself in Malahide and Portmarnock, at Low Rock and High Rock, and all the way up to Sutton. It is great to see that. I have had the pleasure of engaging with stakeholders in my constituency of Dublin Fingal, and beyond in the other local authorities as well.

Right now, the local authorities are continually investigating potential sources of pollution such as underperforming sewer overflows and missed connections to the surface water drainage system. I will give one example. We had an issue in Portmarnock recently with a pump station that was due to be replaced. Unfortunately, a planning challenge was taken to that. Money had been allocated to replace that pumping station but we cannot do it as it has been tied up in judicial review and we have had continuous problems with the pumping station. That is just one example. I specifically asked Irish Water to study the use and benefits of the additional and extended use of ultraviolet disinfection at the Ringsend waste treatment plant. I have also ensured that water quality testing is undertaken across the bay during summer and winter, and that all of this data is made available online for anyone to access.

This proposal is very well intentioned. I have some apprehension of the approach being proposed, and I will explain why. Under the EU rules, bathing waters are designated where a large number of people bathe and where water quality is suitable. The regulated bathing water season in Ireland runs from 1 June to 15 September. This period for bathing was selected with reference to the World Health Organization guidelines. If we extended the EU directive designated bathing water season into the winter, it increases the potential for adverse results and may unnecessarily put summertime designations in jeopardy. We must be careful about how we do that. Many people I have discussed the matter with would like to see the water quality all year round, and to be able to see the testing all year with the publication of the test results all year round. If we extended the bathing season and if we had significant weather events, there is potential for water run-off to decrease water quality in the winter months. If we extended the bathing season into that period, the calculation of that might actually impact on the summer bathing season as well. Again, this is something we can work through on Committee Stage. As it is written now, it would be a very real risk that the water quality criteria for designation may not be met, with a result that the designation would be withdrawn for the calendar year as a whole, including summer period. None of us wants that. I am aware this is not the intention of the Bill but we would have to work it through.

This is not a matter of more pollution, but it is simply a fact that in the winter there is less sunlight, which means less sunlight to kill the bacteria in the water, and a much higher frequency of heavy rainfall events. Poor winter results would potentially cause bathing waters to be closed or redesignated for the entire year. Again, we would need to work through that piece.

It might also be useful for the Deputy to know that we have a really good team on the water quality piece within my Department, and post this recess maybe we could arrange a specific briefing on some of these matters to see what type of amendments we could work on within it. I am not saying we would agree with them all, but this is genuinely a real concern of mine. Not designating bathing areas in winter does not mean, nor should it, that we cannot or do not take suitable measures to protect those people - and I see them - who are brave enough to get into the cold water on a winter's day. There are people who swim on 365 days per year. I must say that I admire them but I am not one of them.

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