The majority of Irish bathing sites meet higher than “mandatory” European Union water quality standards, according to an Environmental Protection Agency report published today.
The report - entitled Quality of Bathing Water in Ireland: An Overview for the Year 2011 - classified 112 [83 per cent] of the 135 coastal, lake and river bathing waters in Ireland as “good”.
This was lower than the previous year when 90 per cent of bathing areas met these standards.
When judged by the lower “mandatory” standards, 98.5 per cent of bathing places were deemed satisfactory, an improvement on 2010 when 97 per cent met these standards.
Two out of the 135 bathing sites - Clifden Beach (Galway) and White Strand (Miltown Malbay) - were classified as having “poor” water quality.
In the case of Clifden, the EPA said a recently established programme of remedial works for the nearby wastewater treatment plant should bring about significant improvements in water quality in the near future.
In Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, the classification resulted from "an uncharacteristically poor sample" result taken after bad weather, the agency said.
Local authorities designated five new bathing areas for the 2011 bathing season, bringing the total of identified bathing areas to 135, comprising 126 seawater and nine freshwater.
Of the 18 local authorities who had designated bathing areas, only five achieved "good" status for all of their identified bathing waters. These were Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Louth, Mayo, Meath and Wicklow County Councils.
EPA director-general Laura Burke said: “The quality of bathing waters in Ireland remains high and shows a sustained improvement in the numbers of bathing areas achieving ‘sufficient’ status over the last few years.
"There has been a drop in the numbers of areas achieving ‘good’ status this year, although five local authorities achieved ‘good’ status for all of their designated bathing water sites," said Ms Burke.
"While compliance with current bathing water quality standards is high, stricter standards will take effect from 2014 and these will require greater vigilance to ensure our bathing waters continue to be among the best in Europe," she added.
The EPA report found that 21 bathing spots met only the "sufficient" water quality standard. In Dublin they included Balbriggan front strand, Loughshinny, Rush south beach and Sandymount on the south side of the city.
In Galway they were Traught in Kinvara, Ballyloughane beach, Grattan Road beach, Silverstrand beach and Tra na bhForbacha.
In the south of the country the Youghal region fell down on the water quality at its beaches at Claycastle and the Front Strand, while in the north Trá na hÚine or Inny Strand at Waterville did not make the top grade.
In the south-east Tramore beach and Duncannon in Waterford and Rosslare and Morriscastle in Wexford were also classed as just meeting the sufficient quality.
Lady's Bay near Buncrana in Donegal and Streedagh beach in Sligo fell below the highest standards.
The inland freshwater sites which did not pass the high mark tests included Lilliput on Lough Ennell and Portnashangan on Lough Owel in Westmeath and Keeldra Lough in Leitrim.
Throughout this year's bathing season, up-to-date bathing water quality information, as provided by the local authorities, will be displayed on the Splash website bathingwater.ie
