Roche Welcomes Excellent Results For Irish Beaches In New "Quality Of Bathing" Report

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Dick Roche, T.D., welcomed the publication of the Environmental Protection Agency's "The Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland" report for the year 2006 last week, noting that the results show that the quality of bathing water in Ireland is very good, with 97% of bathing areas complying with European Union mandatory standards and 90% complying with the, stricter, guide standards. 

"This Government has been fully committed to maintaining and improving the high standards of our bathing waters," he said.

He also expressed his confidence  that the quality of bathing waters and water quality surface waters generally, will be improved further by significant measures taken by his department, such as the substantial investment in the Water Services Investment Programme under the National Development Plan, implementation of the Water Framework Directive and introduction of a Nitrates Action Programme. 

Although 127 out of the 131 designated bathing areas met the E.U. mandatory standard, Minister Roche expressed his disappointment that four bathing areas did not meet this standard. 

Whilst this is an improvement from last year, when five bathing areas failed, it is still a disappointment for the government when bathing areas are non-compliant. 

The Minister also said that he was pleased that the new E.U. Directive on bathing water quality seems to be delivering increased health-protection for bathers. 

E.U. Member States have until March 24th, 2008 to implement this Directive in national law.

The new Directive also focuses on more use of modern communication methods, such as the Internet, to inform the public about the quality of bathing waters.