Water pollution is the environmental hazard the Irish public is most worried about [1]. This is not surprising. We already know from the EPA that almost half of our waters are unhealthy and pollution is increasing in many parts of the country. The same week the draft Programme for Government was published a study of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species found that a quarter of the earth’s freshwater animals are at risk of extinction with pollution impacting over half of those threatened [2], and another study found that one of Ireland’s biggest lagoons is so polluted that its glow can be seen from space [3]. Despite all this, the new Programme for Government has no clear measures that are likely to effectively tackle the water pollution crisis. In fact, it does not mention water pollution at all in its 157 pages.
The response to this claim by a government politician would likely be that the programme has a commitment to “establish a Cabinet Committee on Water Quality chaired by the Taoiseach to coordinate water quality improvements across all sectors”. “A water quality committee at the highest level! What is a better commitment than that?” They would likely say. And this, on the face of it, is an excellent commitment to have in the Programme for Government and we do welcome it. However, faith in how effective this committee will be to deliver the level of action we need on water pollution evaporates when we look at the context in which this commitment is made.
The commitment is made in a section on retaining the Nitrates Derogation in the Agriculture and Food chapter, not in the environment chapter. The committee commitment was announced by Fine Gael first in October last year in the run-up to election [4], it was hailed as “a firm commitment to farmers of Fine Gael’s intention to leave no stone unturned in retaining the nitrates derogation”. Nitrate is one of the main pollutants of Irish waters. The nitrates derogation is essentially an allowance for some farmers to have more organic nitrates on their land than is normally allowed, which unless effectively managed, risk assessed and controlled, leads to more nitrates pollution. So while this committee is set to improve water quality on one hand, it seems its main reason to do this is to ensure that Ireland is allowed to keep using an excess of what often ends up as a water pollutant.
A government politician might likely respond to this by saying the government will make sure the nitrates usage is effectively managed so that it doesn’t end up as pollution, and that, as the committee will look at addressing water quality across all sectors, water pollution would be reduced overall.
Let’s look at the first of these arguments, effectively managing nitrates pollution is what the government has been claiming it has been doing for some time yet nitrates pollution has been increasing especially in the South and South East of the country. They may argue that more effective measures are being introduced that will improve nitrates pollution but the latest additional measures to its Nitrates Action Plan have been recognised as lacking any evidence base for their impact on water quality within the plan’s own environmental assessment [5], while the level of compliance with current measures to improve water quality, such as the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Regulations, is way too low [6]. No measures in the plan ensure that nitrate derogations can only be granted if it can be demonstrated that a catchment can absorb the nitrates or if it won’t impact on the waterbodies’ ecological status. Simply put the level of effective management needed is just not there.
The argument that the committee will improve water quality across all sectors, is thrown into doubt by the fact that the Programme for Government itself is completely lacking in commitments to improve water quality in these other sectors. SWAN submitted recommendations to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael before and after the election to be committed to in their manifestos and the Programme for Government to improve water quality. Not one of these recommendations was included in their manifestos or subsequently in the Programme for Government.
No commitment has been made to urgently upgrade all the wastewater treatment plants causing significant pollution in nearly two hundred waterbodies. Nothing is in there on changing licensing to prevent the damaging impacts on water quality from forestry. No mention of reforming the Arterial Drainage Act to tackle the second biggest threat on our rivers, physical modifications such as deepening and straightening of rivers and clearance of riverbanks. No commitment has been made to publish the Marine Protected Areas bill which is essential to protect our marine environment. In fact, analysis has found that the amount of environmental commitments to water and the marine in the 2025 Programme for Government has halved from the amount in its predecessor [7}.
Yet, it is still possible for all of this to change. While none of the strong measures that are needed to effectively tackle water pollution and degradation are committed to in the Programme for Government, nowhere does it say they won’t be done either. In fact, stronger measures will be required if we are to meet our obligations under numerous EU laws. A signal of what the Cabinet Committee on Water Quality’s true purpose is will be clear if the committee disbands once they have done the bare minimum to get the nitrates derogation with some slight improvement in overall water quality (if they can even do this which is doubtful itself), or whether it continues to meet to ensure all our waters are made healthy, therefore meeting our obligations under the EU Water Framework Directive and achieving good water quality for wildlife and all the people of Ireland. What is required is the political will to do it. Let’s make sure they have that.
Antóin McDermott
SWAN Communications and Advocacy Manager
References
[1] 79% of the Irish population say they are either ‘very worried’ or ‘somewhat worried’ about water pollution harming their local area. See The Environmental Protection Agency Climate Change Report (2024) https://www.epa.ie/publications/monitoring–assessment/climate-change/Climate-Change-in-the-Irish-Mind-Wave-2-Report-1.pdf
[2] https://iucn.org/press-release/202501/one-quarter-freshwater-animals-risk-extinction-iucn-red-list
[5] Government of Ireland (2023) Proposed additional measures for the Fifth Nitrates Action Programme: Public Consultation Document. Available at: https://www.gov.ie/pdf/?file=https://assets.gov.ie/310817/9e2d2f33-15d2-4b45-904a-2975b4339695.pdf (Accessed: 2 December 2024).
[6] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2024) Opening statement prepared for Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Wednesday 10th July 2024. Available at: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/33/joint_committee_on_agriculture_food_and_the_marine/submiss