Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1198.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide an update on Ireland’s progress with the directive (details supplied); the funding he is identifying to ensure tertiary treatment is rolled out for all coastal wastewater treatment plants - specifically plants adjacent to bays and harbours where shellfish production is carried out to sustain food safety, rural jobs and enterprise; to outline costs of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33486/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) (Directive 2000/60/EC of 23 October 2000) establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy) establishes a common framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater. River basin management planning, structured in six-year cycles, along with its associated Programme of Measures, is the tool prescribed by the Directive for achieving these aims.

Building on the successful elements of the first River Basin Management Plan cycle, the Government introduced new high-level structures for implementation of the WFD as part of the second-cycle river basin management plan that covered the period 2018-2021. These new implementation bodies are supported by regional local authority structures, comprising of 5 regional committees, which drive the delivery of supporting measures at local level.

My Department is currently preparing the third River Basin Management Plan for Ireland, to cover the WFD third cycle, and which will be published shortly. A key commitment in the Programme for Government, a new revised and strengthened River Basin Management Plan is a strategic plan that will outline the national policies and high-level goals that will protect and restore our natural waters, and will advance Ireland’s commitment to the implementation of the WFD.

The EU Commission, EU Parliament and Member States have been working on the recast Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. When adopted this new directive will increase the standards for urban wastewater treatment discharges. Work is ongoing to finalise this recast Directive and when it is adopted my Department will transpose it into national legislation.