Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As humans, access to clean water is essential for our livelihoods, our economy and our wellbeing. Our rivers and lakes are home to hundreds of freshwater species while our estuaries and coastal waters remain a rich source of marine biology biodiversity, so clean water is also essential for nature to thrive. The water framework directive was adopted by member states throughout Europe, including Ireland in 2000. A requirement of the directive is that all waters are protected and restored to at least good status by 2027. This means waters in moderate or worse status must be restored to at least good status by then. Sustained and focused action is needed to achieve sustainability not only across sectors such as agriculture, energy, transport and industry but across the whole of society. The assessment highlighted our most recent four-year assessment of Ireland’s environment, finding that the outlook was not good. It reflects the transformation needed so that we all live sustainably and urged the need for a decade of action and transformation, particularly in the context of the escalating climate and biodiversity emergencies. To achieve an environment which supports our health and well-being, our natural environment must first be valued and then protected by all, and this will require action on the part of the Government and every household, business, sector and community.

With regard to drinking water, since the establishment of Irish Water, 263 boil water notices have been lifted, benefiting approximately 1.8 million people. Where risks to water quality are identified through rigorous sampling and testing, boil water notices are issued to safeguard public health. In all instances, immediate action is undertaken to address the underlying causes of the issue to enable the lifting of the notice as soon as it is safe to do so. While progress has been good, recently there has been a decline in water quality, with the number of at risk supplies on the EPA’s remedial action list increasing to 57 in mid-2022 from 52 in 2021. This underlines the fact that drinking water treatment in many supplies is still not as robust as it needs to be to ensure the supply is resilient and safe into the future. I am glad to report that the EPA drinking water report shows that the quality of Ireland’s drinking water supplies continues to improve. Compliance with the microbiological and chemical standards for drinking water remains greater than 99.7%, which means the water in our public water supplies is safe to drink. Despite this, drinking water treatment in many supplies is not as resilient as it needs to be to ensure the supply is safe into the future. While the quality of drinking water in public supplies remains high, delays in delivering public water improvements continues to put water quality and the public's health at risk.

We have increased investment in our drinking water services year on year. This is reaping benefits for customers nationwide, giving them the assurance they can enjoy clean, safe drinking water. This needs to continue. However, the environmental group has pointed out that it will be 24 years before the lead pipes under Uisce Éireann's control are replaced. The progress rate on replacing them is unacceptable. This is serious in the context of people's health. People can become ill from drinking inadequately treated water, especially severe in vulnerable people such as the young or elderly. The EPA report on water quality found that significant incidents during 2021 at at least two water treatment plants put the health of approximately 885,000 people at risk, and represented significant failings by Uisce Éireann. The EPA is calling for stronger leadership at a national level on the lead strategy, especially given the forthcoming reduced limit in the new drinking water directive. Significant improvement in the collective efforts of all stakeholders is required.

I am happy to say that in County Louth we have built new drinking water infrastructure in five towns throughout the county, improving the water quality and benefiting local communities in Dundalk, Tallanstown, Clogherhead, Omeath and south Louth-east Meath. By building this new infrastructure, we have improved drinking water for more than 73,000 people and facilitated the removal of Clogherhead, Omeath and south Louth-east Meath water supplies from the RAL.

The scale of investment, the level of national planning and the ongoing delivery of projects and programmes by Uisce Éireann is demonstrated in the report. Key programmes such as the national disinfection programme and the removal of the risk of trihalomethanes, THMs, and Cryptosporidium in water supplies are ongoing and are vital to ensuring clean, safe drinking water throughout the country. The report is clear, however, that while a lot has been achieved, the outlook for Ireland’s environment is not optimistic unless we accelerate the implementation of solutions across all sectors of society to secure water supplies into the future. In boil water notice cases, capital investment is required to address a treatment deficiency so that the average duration of all subsequent notices continues to decrease. The security of supply is dependent on the risks to the supply, adequacy of the water treatment infrastructure and the management and operational controls in place. Investment in these areas is crucial.

The ecological health of our surface waters is assessed by studying the different types of plants and animals living in them. Elements such as oxygen, nutrient concentration and physical alterations, the hydromorphological condition of a water body are also assessed. This information tells us how healthy our waters are. The chemical status of our surface water is also determined by measuring the concentration of different chemical pollutants such as metals and pesticides that are known to be harmful to aquatic organisms and the environment.

Since Covid-19 there has been an increase in people sea swimming for health and mental health purposes. On top of this, sunshine means that more people are accessing our beaches outside of the traditional bathing season.

During 2022, the EPA participated in the national bathing water expert group, which is chaired by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to help identify potential options to better protect bathers who swim year round. Happily, five beaches in Louth and Meath have been found to have an excellent bathing water supply. Laytown, Bettystown, Port-Lurganboy beach, Clogherhead-Seapoint, and Shelling Hill-Templetown were all named as having excellent bathing water. However, the EPA's report, Water Quality in Ireland 2016-2021, published in October, highlights the further decline of water quality in Ireland, and that at the current level of progress, Ireland will fail to meet the EU and national goal of restoring all water to good or better status by 2027. The assessment showed that only just over half of the surface waters, which is rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters, are in satisfactory condition, that is, they are achieving good or high ecological status and can sustain healthy ecosystems for fish, insects and plants. There has been a significant deterioration in the number of estuaries and coastal waters in satisfactory condition, mostly along the south-east and southern seaboards.

There are still, therefore, some issues impacting bathing water quality to address. Agriculture, urban wastewater and fouling from dogs on beaches all impact on the quality of bathing water. Urgent and targeted action is required to reduce nitrogen emissions from agriculture in these areas. Ongoing improvements in bathing water quality is attributed to improved management of bathing water over many years, together with investment in the treatment of urban wastewater. Irish Water, therefore, needs to improve the operation, management and maintenance of treatment plants and networks which impact on bathing water.

Treating wastewater to make it clean and safe is essential in protecting our environment and public health. Improvements in wastewater treatment are evident, with the number of priority areas reducing by almost 40% over the past five years, from 147 to 91. There is still a long way to go to bring deficient treatment systems up to standard and provide for future needs. It will take a multi-billion euro investment, based on current investment levels, and at least two decades to get all of the treatment systems up to standard.

Overall, the EPA report outlined how groundwater continues to be under pressure from human activities, such as wastewater discharge, agriculture and forestry. These have an impact on water quality across the country's water bodies, whereby excessive levels of nutrients can cause an overgrowth of plants and algae, clogging up watercourses, using high levels of oxygen and harming aquatic life. Higher levels of phosphorus are particularly concerning with regard to the water quality of rivers and lakes, while nitrogen is more of a concern for estuaries. Ireland relies heavily on its clean and green image, both for its food production and for its tourism industry, yet the reality is the very opposite. Investment, co-ordination and action are required now.

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