Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Due to the Victorian decrepit water infrastructure in much of my area - this is probably true of much of the city, but it is certainly true of Dún Laoghaire - when it rains, the run-off water mixes with foul water and the foul water all goes into the pumping station in Dún Laoghaire, which cannot cope and therefore foul water goes into the sea, destroying water quality and making the sea in Dublin bay unsafe for swimming. This happens all the time when it rains too heavily because of the failure of successive Governments to put the necessary investment into rehabilitating the decrepit Victorian water infrastructure. Such is the overwhelming effect of rain on the pumping station off the west pier in Dún Laoghaire, it is unable to pump the foul water up to the treatment plant in Ringsend and, therefore, people cannot swim because foul water is all over Dublin Bay. This happens at short notice. This needs to be addressed. It has been flagged. There is no testing of the water outside the swimming season from May to September even though people swim in the winter months. It needs to be urgently addressed to have this decrepit water infrastructure rehabilitated so we do not have Dublin Bay full of foul water.

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