Richard Boyd Barrett: Dublin Bay 'unswimmable' after heavy rain

Taoiseach, because of the Victorian decrepit water infrastructure in much of my area and this is probably true in much of the city but certainly in Dun Laoghaire, when it rains the runoff water mixes with foul water and the foul water all go into the pumping station in Dun Laoghaire which can't cope and therefore you get foul water going into the sea destroying water quality and making the sea in Dublin Bay unswimmable. This happens all the time if it rains too heavily because of the failure of successive governments to put the necessary investment into rehabilitating the decrepit Victorian water infrastructure such as the overwhelming effect of rain on the pumping station off the West Pier of Dun Laoghaire, it's unable to pump the foul water up to Ring's End to the treatment plant up there and therefore people can't swim. This happens at very short notice because foul water is all over Dublin Bay. This needs to be addressed, it's been flagged. By the way there's no testing outside the swimming season from May to September of the water even though people swim in the winter months. It needs to be urgently addressed to have this decrepit water infrastructure rehabilitated so that we do not have Dublin Bay full of foul water. I want to thank the large number of deputies who tabled questions on this issue and quite a substantial number are focused in beginning with Deputy Clear, Romara, Dolan, McCormack and Deputy Cahill and Deputy Scanlon on the Nitrates Directive and to say that the establishment of the Cabinet Committee I think demonstrates the government's commitment to addressing water quality improvements across all sectors and obviously it's more than just in terms of Nitrates Directive but key supports have been provided to farmers through schemes such as the targeted agricultural modernisation schemes, 60% nutrient storage grant scheme and under the Water Framework Directive each member state is now required to implement a new Nitrates Action Program maybe four years. Ireland is currently on the fifth Nitrates Action Program which will expire in December of this year. At the European Commission's Nitrates Committee meeting on the 12th of December last year Ireland signalled its intentions, its plans to seek a renewal of its Nitrates derogation in Ireland and that will be Ireland's sixth NAP which is due in December of this year, 2025. The government will work with stakeholders including through the Agricultural Water Quality Working Group to develop Ireland's sixth Nitrates Action Program covering the period of January 2026 to December 2029. Once approved, the NAP will be subject to a strategic environmental assessment and appropriate assessment and public consultation before finalising for submission to the Commission. A derogation is granted by Member State vote at the Nitrates Committee and the sixth Nitrates Action Program must be in place before a vote can occur. If Ireland is to retain its derogation for January 2026, we must present at the Nitrates Committee quarterly meetings in March, June and September of 2025 to ensure that a vote goes ahead at the December meeting. A vote is permitted only when the Commission is satisfied with Ireland's sixth Nitrates Action Program. The presentations demonstrating improvements and water quality have been given to the Nitrates Committee and the Commission is satisfied with the proposed derogation programme. We will continue to work with stakeholders in that regard. Could I say, in respect of other questions, in terms of the investment, there is huge investment in WIBARIC going into the existing pipelines and water system across Dublin and across the country. We also, in terms of additional investment, have to make sure that there is investment for new water supply as well. There are many towns around the country at the moment where houses cannot be built because of lack of water supply capacity. And that can't continue. And we need to balance between overhauling the existing system but also making sure we can grow. Deputy Martin Daly managed to get a question in on Roscommon Regent University Hospital. I was waiting for the question as to when was the hospital about to get a wastewater treatment plant or something of such relevance to the question. But I admire innovation and creativity at all times. And to say that I will follow up with the HSE in respect of that question in terms of the capital plan for 2025. Deputy Cahill, I agree with you in terms of natural methods of dealing with cleaning and particularly wetland approaches and so on. So I will work with you in terms of follow through on the ideas that you have come forward with. The Dublin Bay Bill, I talked to Minister O'Brien isn't quite responsible. Do we need more agencies? Increasingly we are inside the house questioning the spend by agencies and supervision over agencies. We need to make sure that Irish water is doing what it is legislated to do and resourced to do. Look, I am open to ideas all the time, but we will follow through on that. Deputy Padraig O'Sullivan, you did raise this with me last week. I will continue to engage with Irish water in terms of the quality of the water on the north side of Cork, which is not good. They did indicate to us last week that they were making progress, but I take your point. The fundamental issues still remain in respect of, as you say, the cast iron pipes and the difficulties that many, many households are facing with the quality of the water. Thank you.