Monitoring & Assessment: Freshwater & Marine Publications

The Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland 2014

An Overview for the year 2014

Summary: Overall the quality of Ireland’s bathing water quality remains extremely high, with 94% of bathing waters complying with new stricter EU standards and achieving at least ‘Sufficient’ water quality status in 2014. Assessment was undertaken using 4 years of data (2011-2014) as opposed to annual data previously. Around 90% of other monitored waters also met the standards for at least ‘Good’ quality.

Published: 2015

ISBN: 978-1-84095-592-7

Pages: 23

Filesize: 5,080 KB

Format: pdf

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Key Findings:

• 128 of the 136 EU identified bathing waters (94%) met the new stricter EU standards and classed as being of ‘at least Sufficient’ water quality. 
• Of these 118 (87%) of EU identified bathing waters were classified as being of ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’ quality – up from 84% in 2013. 
• 1 new bathing water was identified in 2014 however the report also contains details on non-EU identified waters monitored by local authorities. 
• 7 bathing waters (1 inland and 6 coastal) failed to comply with the minimum standards and were classified as being of ‘Poor’ quality. These will now be subject to a range of management measures to improve water quality. 
• Most of the pollution incidents reported during 2014 related to wastewater discharges due to e.g. the operation of storm overflows after heavy rain.
• The quality of many of the other monitored waters is also very high with almost 90% meeting the criteria for at least ‘Good’ quality.