The Irish Times view on the need to clean up Irish waters

The Environmental Protection Agency’s urban wastewater report for 2021 sets out the ongoing failure of Irish Water to provide adequate treatment in cities, towns and villages across Ireland. Of most concern, raw sewage is being discharged from 32 Irish towns into rivers and seas, with little clear indication of when this will be remedied. This includes major urban centres such as Malahide, Arklow, Lahinch and Kinsale.

The standout culprit is Ringsend wastewater treatment plant in Dublin, which processes 40 per cent of Ireland’s sewage. It is overloaded “and fails to consistently treat sewage to the required standards”. Its discharges into Dublin Bay are an environmental transgression of such scale that it means Ireland overall is way short of meeting EU requirements. In this case resolution is within sight. A €500 million upgrade will be completed in 2025 with capacity for 2.4 million people.

Discharge of raw sewage, insufficient treatment and deficient infrastructure are unacceptable, especially in view of the marked deterioration in the quality of rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters due to other pressures. Too many river basins are already vulnerable and at risk of becoming grossly polluted.

From a public health point of view, raw sewage is a vector for a wide range of illnesses, with evidence that discharges are undermining the quality of bathing waters at a time of unprecedented numbers of people engaging in sea swimming.

Michael D Higgins: ‘What I had was a form of mild stroke. It didn’t affect my cognitive abilities’

---

Trapped and starving, two families in Gaza Strip try to keep their children alive

---

EU could be preparing tougher car emissions rules

---

Leinster provide too many players to the national squad for it to be an equitable system

---

The utility’s ability to deliver in a timely way has been questioned; it does not have clear plans to deal with a third of the priority areas where wastewater is adversely impacting the environment – and has not allocated resources in its plan to complete improvements at these locations.

A deeper analysis of factors contributing to Irish Water’s difficulties indicates it is often stuck in a mire of planning delays, legal challenges and land acquisition problems – yet further evidence that the planning system is unfit for purpose. Critically, this undermines the efficient processing of infrastructure-related projects. This is not in the public interest and introduces too much risk and uncertainty to developments which are of national strategic importance. Attorney General Paul Gallagher needs to address these issues in his forthcoming review of planning legislation.

However, the problem goes beyond planning. Irish Water is playing catch-up having inherited a legacy of past failures by the State over many decades to invest adequately in wastewater treatment. It is struggling without independent income streams which would allow it to borrow to fund a multi-billion euro investment programme over the next 20 years. This makes it all the more important to focus on areas that will give greatest benefit as soon as possible from a public health and water quality perspective.