Only one beach, Bray in Co Wicklow, had its application for a Blue Flag refused on the grounds that it did not meet the required water quality criteria. "It's very bad for Bray," said Green MEP Ms Nuala Ahern, who lives down the coast in Greystones. "There has been a longstanding problem with water quality in Bray which has not been taken seriously. We took it seriously in Greystones and demanded change. Bray Urban District Council must now look seriously at its water monitoring situation."
In the 1980s, Greystones' water quality deteriorated rapidly as it grew from a small town into a sprawling suburb. Nearly a decade of public pressure led to the building of both primary and secondary treatment plants, and this year, for the first time, the town's beach has been awarded a Blue Flag.
A spokesman for Bray Urban District Council said it was surprised not to get a Blue Flag after putting in extra sewage disposal "infrastructure" in recent years.
He said in wet and stormy weather there was sometimes "a lot of debris in the water." He also suggested that some people with septic tanks might still be discharging their sewage into surface water outlets rather than the county council sewage system.