The quality of Ireland's bathing water comes out well from the survey conducted here by the Environmental Protection Agency, with 98.5 per cent of coastal waters pronounced to be above agreed minimum European Union standards and 91.5 per cent reaching more stringent ones. Attention has focussed on a minority of beaches in Dublin, Waterford and Galway which have been found unsafe for bathing because of sewage or salmonella poisoning. But it is gratifying that most beaches have improved in quality.
We are entitled to expect the highest standards, given the clean natural coastal environment bequeathed to Ireland. That is an important factor in attracting tourists here, as the parallel European Blue Flag scheme makes clear. Over the last generation much work has been done to meet minimum standards in reducing sewage pollution by installing proper treatment facilities. This has been one of the areas where EU funding and standards have been most valuably applied. Industrial pollution has been less of a problem in most parts of the country, except for Dublin and several other major urban areas. That too is now subject to much more stringent controls.
It is all the more worrying to find evidence that salmonella poisoning has been discovered in a number of beaches in the Dublin area, including Dollymount Strand, Portmarnock, Portrane and Sutton. These are all popular locations, long used by Dubliners and, alas, long subject to other forms of pollution. Salmonella is not related to sewage pollution, but is a food related organism normally associated with chicken and poultry. It does not in fact occur in the EU guidelines used by the Environmental Protection Agency. Now that it has been discovered in these waters those who use them are entitled to more information and advice about safe practices than has so far been forthcoming.
Ireland's bathing waters have been found to be among the cleanest in the EU and elsewhere in Europe. Would that the same could be said for the quality of water in most rivers and lakes. The effects of the overuse of fertilisers and cleaning agents may be seen in many of the most famous angling and tourist amenities - as we will be rapidly reminded if this spell of fine weather is prolonged. The lessons from the coastal cleanliness documented in this report are clear - it is quite possible with determined effort to tackle pollution effectively. But that will take political will, which is often in short supply. A new generation of people is becoming less tolerant of low standards, so there is room for hope that the necessary effort will be easier to mobilise politically.
Monitoring exercises such as this set standards and benchmarks that many communities work hard to meet and improve upon, as the Blue Flag beach scheme has established convincingly. That it is possible to combine development with higher environmental standards is gradually coming home to the electorate. Ireland has a great deal to gain from a wider consciousness of that reality.