The quality of water in Ireland has been called into question after the publication of a new Environmental Protection Agency report.

Green Party representative Cllr Malcolm Noonan heaped criticism on the River Basin Catchment Management approach over a failure to deal with the scale of pollution from agriculture. He also hit out at Irish Water for allowing the influence of inadequate urban waste water treatment on watercourses.

Cllr Noonan commented: "We are looking at a whole systems failure here; where all agencies charged with or with a responsibility for the management of our waterways have abjectly failed in their duties. Not alone will our River Basin Management Plans fail to meet targets set for 2021, these plans will actually oversee a serious deterioration of rivers, lakes, estuaries and groundwater since their inception."

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He added: "We support the call of the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) for full resourcing of agencies to implement the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and for a review of River Basin Management Plans nationally to see how they can be strengthened and resourced.

"From the findings of this latest EPA report it is clear that we will fall well short of meeting 'good ecological status' for all water bodies by 2021. Supporting catchment led and community based projects towards ecological management of our lands, regenerative farming practices and a massive ramp up in capital investment in urban waste water treatment can reverse this trend but we need to see commitment and a sense of urgency and ambition by the State."

(CM/JG)