All 23 of Northern Ireland's identified bathing waters passed the EC Bathing Waters Directive mandatory standard for water quality in 2013.

This makes 2013 the best year ever for bathing water quality in Northern Ireland since bathing waters were first designated under the EC Bathing Water Directive in 1994.

Passing the mandatory standard means that all beaches were classified as having good water quality or better.

What's more, 20 of those 23 beaches also met the higher guideline standards which means that the water quality at those beaches was excellent over the summer bathing season.

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Minister Durkan said: "This is brilliant news for bathers. Northern Ireland's beaches are some of the finest in Europe and one of our best assets. It is fantastic to see our beaches performing so well on water quality.

"My Department has worked closely with its partners through the Good Beach Summits to ensure that our bathing waters and the rivers which flow into them are adequately protected. A lot of work has been carried out particularly in catchments that have previously had poorer water quality. NI Water made significant improvements to the sewage treatment network and this is now paying off in our water quality results.

"The greatest threat to our bathing water quality is heavy rainfall. Whilst we did experience some great weather in June and July, August and September brought some very heavy downpours so it would seem that the new infrastructure is managing that pollution risk and better protecting our bathing waters."

(CD/IT)