John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on the condition of the beaches along the coastline of County Dublin in terms of their environmental standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23790/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produces an annual “Report on Bathing Water Quality”. The 2015 report shows that Ireland’s bathing waters are among the best in northern Europe, with 93.4% meeting EU minimum standards and 74% attaining “excellent” status.

The report also identifies several bathing waters adjacent to urban areas, particularly in Dublin, as being prone to episodic pollution events and being of less than ‘good’ water quality status. These pollution events are generally associated with overflows from pumping stations or storm outfalls as a result of sewer network blockages or following heavy rainfall. The report also highlights that significant infrastructural investment will be required to reduce the likelihood of recurrence of pollution events in these urban areas. A copy of the report can be downloaded from the EPA website at:.

Throughout the bathing season, the local authorities report their bathing water monitoring results to the EPA and this information is published and made available to the public on the national bathing water website (splash.epa.ie). During the bathing season where any incidents arise at these identified bathing waters the local authorities report the incidents to the EPA using a notification system which automatically reports incident information, including actions undertaken to protect bathers, and dissemination of this information to the public is undertaken via the Splash website and via social media through the @EPABathingWater twitter account.