Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge he is deputising for another Minister but that is a real pro forma answer. Talking about identifying bathing spots and when people use them by 24 March 2025 is a little bit of a nonsense. If Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council wants help identifying the places people are swimming, I will tell the council now. As to when people are swimming, the answer is "Every day". I go to the Forty Foot regularly. Every day there are people there at all hours. During daylight, there is no time when there are not people swimming there. That is one example and the same is true of Vico baths and Dún Laoghaire. The answer is "All year round". Yes, they test all year round and publish the results but the frequency of testing goes down to less than half during the winter period and the time required to get the results back means people go swimming without knowing a test conducted two days beforehand has shown significant levels of bacteria in the water.

This is a problem and it is not okay to shrug it off onto local authorities. The Departments needs to tell them to get the finger out and make those decisions now. There is no real doubt about where and when people swim in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.