Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise my concerns about the future of Irish rivers, in particular in the context of a plan apparently being put forward by the Fianna Fáil housing Department to redesignate a large number of rivers as heavily modified water bodies. I refer to rivers like the Boyne, the Barrow, the Corrib, the Dodder, the Liffey, the Lee and the Shannon. Concerns have been raised by Friends of the Irish Environment and the Sustainable Water Network to the effect that the redesignation of a large number of rivers - 433 water bodies in all - as heavily modified water bodies will effectively lock those water bodies into lower environmental standards and thereby have a really detrimental impact upon biodiversity.

This matter only came to people's attention last week. Will the Taoiseach ask the Minister for housing what is going on and how we can revisit this, particularly as it is a matter of real concern? A total of 33 water bodies are currently designated as heavily modified water bodies. The concern is that once we lock in this large number of further water bodies, environmental standards will be lowered.

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