2023: Bathing water quality remains high

Bathing water quality for 2023 remains high, with 97 per cent of assessed bathing waters having met or exceeded the minimum required standard. However, the number of pollution incidents and water bodies with of a ‘poor’ standard both increased in 2023.

In 2023, of the 148 identified bathing waters assessed, 143 (97 per cent) met or exceeded the minimum required standard of sufficient. 114 bathing waters (77 per cent) were of excellent quality, a decrease from 117 (79 per cent) in 2022.

The majority of bathing waters have excellent or good quality:

• 97 per cent of the 148 identified bathing waters met or exceeded the minimum required standard.
• 114 bathing waters (77 per cent) were excellent quality, a slight decrease from 117 for 2022.
• Five bathing waters were poor (up two from 2022) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed these will have a swimming restriction for the 2024 season. These were Lady’s Bay, Buncrana; Trá na mBan, An Spidéal, Balbriggan (Front Strand Beach); Loughshinny Beach; and Sandymount Strand.
• One bathing water – Aillebrack/Silverhill Beach, County Galway – was classified for the first time with excellent quality.

What is impacting bathing waters?

Urban wastewater was most frequently reported as the likely cause of incidents in 2023. Other reported causes included agricultural runoff, and pollution entering the surface water collection system through misconnections or runoff from urban areas.

Heavy rainfall can result in wastewater overflows and in runoff from agricultural lands and urban areas, which can cause short-term deterioration in water quality. Record rainfall levels in July and storms in August led to more bathing water warnings in 2023 than previous years.

Pollution incidents

In 2023, the EPA was notified of 45 pollution incidents which resulted in the closure of bathing waters, up from 34 in 2022. The majority were due to the presence of pollution in sample results (29 incidents). Bathing waters were also closed as a precaution after overflows in the sewer network (12 incidents) and due to algal blooms (four incidents).