Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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435. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to legislate for the Dublin Bay Bill 2021. [42821/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Private Members' Bill regarding Dublin Bay proposes the establishment of a new statutory authority to take on responsibility for co-ordinating the work of the many agencies and bodies currently engaged in planning and development of the Bay Area.

As the Deputy is aware, there is already in existence a non-statutory Dublin Bay Bathing Water Task Force. It was established in 2019 and its focus is to protect and restore water quality to support biodiversity and to protect public health. The Task Force includes representatives of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Uisce Éireann and the local authorities around Dublin Bay. It is coordinating actions across these bodies to ‘identify, assess and, where necessary, to remediate or eliminate sources of pollution entering Dublin Bay. It is also working closely with Professor Wim Meijer and his ‘Acclimatize’ research team in the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at UCD to identify sources of pollution pressures in Dublin Bay. The data gathered by the research team provides robust scientific data required to help the local authorities to target their efforts in implementing actions to deal with sources of pollution entering Dublin Bay.

The Bill also puts forward a proposal to amend the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008 to extend the bathing season around Dublin Bay to the entire year. In June of this year, the Bathing Water Quality (Amendment) Regulations 2024: were adopted. The Regulations empower the local authorities to define the bathing season at bathing sites within their jurisdiction annually.

Therefore, while the Government supports the objectives of the Dublin Bay Bill put forward, the existence of the Dublin Bay Bathing Water Task Force and the provisions of the Bathing Water Quality (Amendment) Regulations 2024 address those objectives in an effective and proportionate manner.