Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In its latest water indicators report, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has found that, overall, there was no significant improvement in the biological quality of our rivers or lakes in 2022. While it is welcome to see that improvements are happening in some areas, these are being completely offset by declines elsewhere. This EPA report highlights that too much nitrogen and phosphorous is getting into our waterways. Nitrogen is coming mainly from agricultural fertilisers and manures, and phosphorus is coming mainly from agricultural run-off and wastewater discharges.

What is now clear is that if there is to be clean, fresh water to support nature’s biodiversity, we need to work closely with farmers to reduce the loss of these nutrients from land into our rivers, lakes and coastal areas. If there is to be clean water to swim in year round, we have to continue to invest in improving our wastewater collection and treatment systems. If there is to be clean water to drink, then we need especially to protect those catchments and aquifers that supply people with drinking water. Clearly, if we are to succeed in resolving these issues and others, we need to be there for water by protecting catchments and restoring those areas where damage has already occurred.

The recent UN water conference has brought a renewed focus onto the area of water resources on the international stage and progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 6. The discussion was unequivocal: our world is facing a global crisis in water. The demand for clean, fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by 2030 according to the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. Earlier this year, we saw devastating floods in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, an area with which I am very familiar. Water supplies are at risk in many areas of southern and western Europe, affected by an exceptionally dry and warm winter. The snow water levels in the Alps are far below the historical average. These impacts will be seen in the resilience of water supplies, in lower food production yields and in energy generation.

In Ireland, while we are not yet facing the same extreme crisis that has affected other parts of the world and Europe, we do have some difficult and deepening issues, such as nutrient pollution, but also issues with the resilience of our water supplies, wastewater collection and treatment, the loss of high-status water bodies, and restoring the natural functions of our rivers to support biodiversity and for flood protection. We may have comparatively abundant water resources but I share the deep concern expressed by the EPA regarding the overall trends in water quality. As a society, we can face these concerns and work towards putting the country on a sustainable pathway for water resource management. The Government is committed to tangible and ambitious action to address these problems.

To address the many challenges, there are three overarching conditions we need to put in place. First, we need to work to integrate our responses to water, climate change and biodiversity loss across all policy areas and across public agencies and authorities. Second, we need to focus on collaboration, not conflict. Third, we all need to focus public and private organisations on taking action to protect, improve and restore water quality. Environmental policy encompasses a wide range of separate but interlinked policy areas, including climate, biodiversity, water and the marine environment. A proposed national statement of environment policy is being prepared by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and is due to be published by the end of this year. It will result in better co-ordination between these different policy areas and a more effective implementation process across all Departments.

Leadership and commitment is required at all levels to move the debate on climate, biodiversity and water to one of collaboration and co-creation. I recognise it will not be an easy discussion but people want us to act for nature. They want us to be responsible, to show leadership at a political level and, above all, to be honest regarding the challenges we face. Certainly, in recent weeks, we have not seen a lot of honesty when it comes to the restoration of nature. Taking a collective and collaborative approach may take longer, but I believe it produces better and more robust policy. In recent weeks, we have seen how divisive approaches can be used by some to create fear and misunderstanding in an attempt to pit farmer against environmentalist, and I am clear this is an artificial divide. We all know we cannot have good agricultural production without healthy nature and clean water, and we cannot restore nature without our farmers, without grazing animals or without productive use of our land. All sides of the conversation have a role to play in finding viable and effective solutions to the problem.

To ensure ownership and integration of water actions, I have requested that the Department draws up proposals for a programme delivery office to support the implementation of the next river basin management plan across all Departments, local authorities, the EPA and other key agencies and stakeholders. This will provide clarity and direction to the various implementation bodies responsible for ensuring the protection and restoration of our waters to good ecological status.

The EPA report is clear that one of the most significant stressors on our water quality and ecosystem health is high nutrient levels, such as nitrogen and phosphorous. These nutrients enter our waters as a result of human activities, such as agriculture, wastewater treatment and forestry. Nitrogen levels, which are mainly from agricultural sources, such as fertilisers and manures, have increased, while phosphorous levels, which are mainly from agricultural run-off and wastewater discharges, are generally stable but are still too high in many rivers and lakes.

We have a long history of taking a collaborative approach to farming, including the establishment of the agricultural sustainability support and advisory programme, ASSAP, the discussions with An Fóram Uisce and, most recently, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has established the agriculture water quality working group to work directly with farmers and the industry to identify and commit to demonstrative actions that will facilitate the agricultural sector to address pollution and improve water quality. Nutrients lost to water represent a cost to farmers and to society. The focus must be on using less and losing less by improving nutrient efficiency and precision farming. Ireland’s CAP strategic plan, which is worth nearly €10 billion to farm families for the period 2023 to 2027, includes measures to protect water in conditionality and across schemes. However, let us not shy away from the scale of the challenge. To look at an area that I am familiar with, one example is the Barrow Estuary in County Kilkenny, which is 83% above the required nitrogen threshold value in the estuary. Four of the top five highest concentration areas were in the south east.

To protect water quality, the Government cannot act alone and individual farmers will need support from their own industry and from retailers. The Irish agrifood sector markets itself on Ireland’s clean, green image. Our dairy processors, in particular, enjoy the benefits of a derogation facility within the nitrates directive. Our tillage farms supply food and drink industries which are selling to international markets. Environmental sustainability also needs economic sustainability, but industry needs to provide farmers with a reasonable economic return for operating sustainably within the limits of their land. Farmers will need programmes that include both economic returns for doing the right thing and ready access to practical farm-level advice.

I recognise also that this is not a one-issue problem. In terms of addressing the impacts of wastewater, the programme for Government has committed to funding Uisce Éireann’s capital investment plan for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure on a multi-annual basis. The national development plan commits almost €6 billion in capital investment by Uisce Éireann from 2021 to 2025, of which more than €4.5 billion will be voted Exchequer funding in respect of domestic water services. In budget 2023 alone, almost €1.6 billion of funding was made available to Uisce Éireann. Uisce Éireann is delivering and the pressure on water from wastewater is improving but, yes, it needs to improve its rate of delivery of these projects and eliminate delays. Major projects, like the upgrade of the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant and the Cork lower harbour main drainage project, will safeguard the environment, protect public health and facilitate development and the provision of new housing.

Rural Ireland is not being left behind when it comes to providing assistance on improving the quality of water. The multi-annual rural water programme provides capital funding aimed at improving the quality, reliability and efficiency of water services in parts of Ireland not served by Uisce Éireann. Again, I stress that I have great admiration for the National Federation of Group Water Schemes and the work it does in terms of catchment management and nature-based solutions. Under this programme, there are four individual, demand-led grant schemes to provide assistance to householders in respect of domestic wastewater treatment systems and individual private wells. There are three grants available for the replacement, repair or upgrading works of a domestic wastewater treatment system for areas listed in the EPA's national inspection plan, or a prioritised area for action, or a high-status objective catchment area.

The rural water working group will shortly complete a review of the composition of the measures to be included for funding under the upcoming multi-annual programme. Details of the programme and its priorities, along with an invitation for local authorities to submit applications for funding, is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Investment such as this will deliver significant improvements in our public water and wastewater service and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in our rivers, lakes, groundwater and coastal areas.

Without an urgent and well co-ordinated mechanism for the implementation of substantial and persuasive measures, it is unlikely Ireland will achieve significant progress in delivering good water quality status for all its water bodies in the longer-term. The EPA report is quite clear that further action needs to be taken to reduce the losses of both nitrogen and phosphorous into the environment. My Department is working on a number of capital investment projects, initiatives, programmes and national plans that will contribute to meeting these challenges.

My Department is currently preparing a new revised and strengthened river basin management plan, which covers the third cycle of river basin planning for Ireland up to 2027. The plan will contain programmes of measures to address the water quality in rivers, lakes, estuarine and other coastal waters. The identification and implementation of the right measure in the right place will be the key driver behind the plan. The river basin management plan is a commitment in the programme for Government and will also show our commitment to abide by the principles of the UN sustainable development goal 6 to ensure safe access to water and sanitation by protecting and restoring our water bodies and by providing sustainable management of our water resources.

Building on the work of previous cycles, and by incorporating the integrated catchment management approach, the plan will again describe the main pressures on our water status and set the environmental objectives and measures to protect and restore our water bodies. The integrated catchment management approach will be underpinned through the development and launch of 46 local catchment management plans. Communities will also have a say in the management of their local waterways and lakes with increased public participation through new catchment community forums. A lot of important and really good work is going on around the country through river trusts already. They are doing fantastic work on invasive species and taking care of our water courses and I pay tribute to them.

Where there are encouraging water quality improvements it shows that measures targeted in priority areas for action are working. This targeted approach is to be significantly enhanced under the new third river basin management plan. The plan has been carefully prepared in consultation with multiple stakeholders, including An Fóram Uisce, the national water stakeholder forum. I thank its members for the really important work they have done in recent years.

Addressing the negative effects of agriculture brings benefits to both the quality of our waters and for climate change. The plan will seek to address these pressures through a balance of education and knowledge alongside enhanced inspection and enforcement requirements. The main measure for addressing the pressures on water quality from agriculture is the introduction of a new nitrates action programme, which gives effect to the requirements of the EU nitrates directive and whose purpose is to prevent pollution of surface waters and groundwater from agricultural sources and to protect and improve water quality. The new nitrates action programme includes necessarily stronger measures to reduce nutrient losses to improve water quality and will work with the new CAP strategic plan which has brought ecosystem protection and environmental management to the fore in a positive and constructive manner from a water quality perspective. Measures introduced under the nitrates action programme include tighter controls on the application of chemical fertilisers and slurry, stronger emphasis on risk-based inspections and enforcement, with up to 16,000 farm inspections to be undertaken by local authorities during the lifetime of the plan, and an industry-led initiative to reduce agricultural impacts on water quality.

Another significant measure to help address water quality will be the upcoming water European innovation partnership, EIP, project which will be managed by the local authority water programme, LAWPRO. The initiative is co-funded by my Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and will invest funding of €60 million over five years. This is a strategically important project for tackling agricultural source water pollution over the third cycle and is specifically focused on reducing losses of phosphorus, nitrogen, sediment and, where relevant, pesticides to water from agricultural lands by promoting the adoption of innovative best practice in nutrient management through the application of nature-based natural water retention measures and other suitable measures. The water EIP provides a valuable opportunity to complement actions under the new nitrates action programme and other programmes such as ACRES, thereby addressing a critical gap in measures to protect and restore water quality. There will be numerous other measures set out in the plan, such as those that will commence in tackling the interruption to river continuity from river barriers. A programme to assess and remediate obsolete river barriers such as dams and weirs which impact on fish and other migratory species is being developed.

One of the key principles of the river basin management plan is to deliver integrated, multiple policy objectives for water, biodiversity and climate wherever possible. This integrated approach will deliver gains for our water quality. The plan will also focus on utilising innovative practices such as nature-based solutions to tackle urban run-off. As we have seen in recent weeks in Wexford, in my own home town of Kilkenny and in Tralee and Dublin, the impact of extreme rainfall events is significant and it is now becoming more frequent as we increasingly see the effects of climate change on the environment. In turn, this can significantly increase both the level of pollution entering water bodies from urban run-off and the risk of flooding. Nature-based solutions could sit very well with article 6 of the nature restoration regulation for urban ecosystems. As well as the cooling effect on urban areas, the wellbeing and liveable cities, there is an interconnectedness of all of these policies which can only benefit communities and urban development generally. My Department has published a best practice interim guidance document to assist planning authorities with implementing nature-based solutions to help mitigate the impact of extreme rainfall. This guidance identifies the need for a significant change in the way we plan, design, build and maintain our urban areas, and it helps to address flood risk, climate change and environmental impacts.

Another area of progress has been in the improvements in the quality of our bathing waters, as evident from the recent EPA bathing water report, which found that 97% of sites are meeting or exceeding the minimum standard. For 2023, 94 blue flags and 65 green coast awards were announced, which is a tribute to the tremendous work and dedication of many groups and individuals throughout Ireland who have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of their bathing waters. I pay tribute to all those groups. They have done fantastic work in their coastal areas and these awards are great testament to their work.

Our success in improving areas such as our bathing waters and putting wastewater on an improving trend shows that it is possible to make the necessary changes. Significant progress is being made in addressing the challenges we face and the Government will continue to deliver strongly on the ambitious commitments to water services contained in the programme for Government. I am pleased to have this opportunity to focus on the issues identified in the recent EPA report on water quality and to highlight the areas in which progress is being made. Water is a vital resource that contributes not just to our health, but also to the wellbeing of our natural environment and the security of our food supply. However, it is clear from the EPA report that there is a requirement for further action from some sectors of our society, action that will bring significant benefits to our nation as a whole. To address these issues, we must look to collaboration and common agreement rather than conflict and scaremongering. My Department and my respective colleagues will continue to engage in addressing these issues and work with those who are most affected to ensure the quality of our water is protected now and into the future.

I look forward to hearing from the House on this important issue.

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