{"id":482254,"date":"2026-05-13T08:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482254\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:20:11","slug":"water-quality-at-bathing-sites-high-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482254\/","title":{"rendered":"Water quality at bathing sites high in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The quality of bathing water remained high across Ireland in 2025 despite increased heavy rainfall, with 98% of sites meeting or exceeding the minimum standard, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/p>\n

A total of 150 of 153 bathing sites achieved a minimum standard, with 120 sites classified as having “excellent” water quality.<\/p>\n

However, the figure is slightly down from last year, when 122 sites were recorded as excellent.<\/p>\n

The EPA said high bathing water quality was maintained in 2025, despite increased pressure from “intense rainfall”.<\/p>\n

Only one site, D\u00fan Laoghaire Baths, was found to have “poor’ bathing water and the agency said this was caused by “wastewater, overflows and dog fouling”.<\/p>\n

It added that D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has produced a management plan to improve bathing water quality at the baths.<\/p>\n

\"INFOGRAPHIC<\/p>\n

It was the first year D\u00fan Laoghaire Baths were included for classification and the tidal pool in B\u00e9al an Mhuirthead in Co Mayo “requires at least one more season of sampling before classification can be assigned”.<\/p>\n

The EPA said there were improvements in bathing water quality at Lady\u2019s Bay, Buncrana, Co Donegal and Sandymount Strand in Dublin following targeted actions by Uisce \u00c9ireann and the local authorities.<\/p>\n

Last year, they were recorded as having “poor” bathing water quality and their classification was upgraded to “sufficient” in 2025.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Director of the EPA\u2019s Office of Evidence and Assessment Roni Hawe said: “We are pleased to report that bathing waters continued to achieve a high standard of quality nationally in 2025.<\/p>\n

“However, the greater frequency of heavy rainfall events throughout the bathing season highlights an increased risk to people\u2019s health when swimming after heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

“These conditions can result in short\u2011term pollution which must be effectively managed if current high standards are to be maintained into the future.”<\/p>\n

Mr Hawe added local authorities “need to strengthen their understanding of rainfall\u2011related pressures” and introduce “climate-resilient measures in place to protect bather health”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The quality of bathing water remained high across Ireland in 2025 despite increased heavy rainfall, with 98% of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-482254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116566296351993953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}