Poor management of wastewater treatment plants by Uisce Éireann continues to harm our environment

Date released: November 04, 2026

• 55% of wastewater treatment plants in Ireland discharged wastewater that failed to meet EPA standards designed to prevent pollution.
• Failures at half of these treatment plants were due to inadequate operation and maintenance.
• Four more towns and villages stopped discharging raw sewage following connection to new treatment plants.
• Essential wastewater infrastructure upgrades needed to prevent pollution and protect the environment are not being delivered quickly enough.

The EPA published its Urban Wastewater Treatment in 2025 report today, which highlights the need to accelerate the delivery of wastewater infrastructure and improve the operation and maintenance of existing treatment plants.

Investment at priority areas identified by the EPA continues to deliver environmental improvements while supporting housing development and sustainable economic growth. However, the necessary treatment infrastructure is not being delivered quickly enough or at the scale required. Furthermore, existing treatment plants are not being properly operated and maintained, undermining the environmental benefits of increased investment in new wastewater infrastructure. As a result, wastewater discharges continue to harm water quality in rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters, and pose a risk to human health.

Wastewater discharged from 55% of licensed treatment plants did not consistently meet the standards set in wastewater discharge licences by the EPA to prevent pollution and protect the environment. Roughly half of failures were due to deficient infrastructure, while the other half were due to poor operation and maintenance. 

Launching the report, Pat Byrne, Director of the EPA’s Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring said:

"Investment in new treatment plants is helping to protect the environment and delivering benefits for local communities, such as in Ramelton, Rathmullan and Milford in Co. Donegal. However, EPA inspections continue to identify poor operational practices and inadequate maintenance of wastewater infrastructure, resulting in wastewater being discharged without proper treatment and adversely impacting water quality. Many of these failures could and should have been prevented, and Uisce Éireann must take immediate and effective action to address these failings."

While operation and maintenance issues can be addressed in the short term, upgrading deficient infrastructure is a longer-term challenge because of the scale of work involved and the investment required. The EPA has identified 72 priority areas where action is most urgently needed to prevent pollution and protect the environment. These include 13 towns and cities that failed to meet mandatory European-wide wastewater treatment standards introduced more than thirty years ago.

Noel Byrne, EPA Programme Manager, said:

"It is encouraging to see critical infrastructure projects such as the upgrade of Ringsend treatment plant being delivered. However, progress by Uisce Éireann in delivering works at many EPA priority areas remains too slow, with around 60% of these areas still not started. This is prolonging impacts on the environment. Uisce Éireann must accelerate the delivery of these essential improvements."

The EPA’s Urban Wastewater Treatment in 2025 report and the list of priority areas are available on the EPA website. The priority areas list includes the environmental issues at each location and Uisce Éireann’s plans to address them.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

Environmental priorities
Wastewater treatment in Ireland has improved in recent years, but much more needs to be done to ensure discharges consistently meet the standards required to prevent pollution and protect the environment. Operation and maintenance issues can and must be addressed without delay. However, addressing all infrastructure deficiencies will take many years due to the scale of work involved and the significant investment required. Improvements must therefore be prioritised where they are needed most. The EPA has identified the following as priority areas where improvements are most urgently needed:

• 11 towns and villages that continue to discharge raw sewage every day, down from 29 at the beginning of 2023 (see Map 1).
• 13 large towns and cities where wastewater treatment failed to meet European Union standards set to protect the environment (see Map 2). Progress made by bringing areas such as Arklow into compliance was offset by new failures and declining effluent quality at others, such as Clonakilty and Swords.
• 35 priority areas where wastewater discharges are adversely impacting the quality of rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters. Uisce Éireann is taking too long to start delivering the improvements needed at three-quarters (26) of these areas, and these delays are prolonging impacts on water quality.
• Nine towns and villages where wastewater treatment must improve to protect habitats of critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels. Lengthy delays in designing the upgrades needed at four of these areas are slowing progress in protecting these important habitats.
• Five towns and villages where upgrades are needed to protect waters designated to support the life and growth of shellfish. Upgrades are underway at just one of these locations. Uisce Éireann has yet to finalise the measures required at the remaining four areas.

Six large urban areas where sewer networks must be upgraded to reduce overflows of untreated wastewater and address a 2019 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Upgrades have been carried out at four of these locations, but significant work remains at the other two.

Map 1: Eleven towns and villages discharging raw sewage in mid-2026.

Map 2: Thirteen towns and cities that failed the European Union standards set to protect the environment.