Holly Cairns: Ireland's Rivers Are Dying, Government Must Act

Today we have another damming report from the Environmental Protection Agency on Ireland's declining water quality. Nearly half of our rivers are ecologically unhealthy. They are dying and so are all of the wildlife and biodiversity in them. Our high status water bodies are deteriorating. These are rivers which are hugely important ecologically. They are refugees for some of our protected species like kingfisher and salmon. Nearly 10% of these rivers have declined in quality in the last year alone. And more worryingly we have seen a net decline of 25% in the number of high quality rivers since 2012. The trend is clear. It is undeniable and we all know why this is happening. Predominantly because of agricultural runoff with wastewater discharges also being a major cause. Those are the facts. That is the science. We can see the devastating impact of government policy and inaction. In many cases that impact will be irreversible. Last week journalist Ella McSweeney shared a graph of wild salmon returns to Irish waters over recent decades. From the mid 1970s to today salmon returns have collapsed from 180,000 per year to less than 20,000. Ella rightly referred to it as extinction in our time. That is what we are witnessing and that is what the government is facilitating. Just last week we had another major fish kill incident in the River Glide in County Louth. Stone footage captured 25km of pollution and tens of thousands of dead fish including adult and juvenile Atlantic salmon and European eel. The source of the pollution has been confirmed as agricultural discharge. A file is being now prepared for a potential prosecution but even if that happens and the prosecution is successful the fines are so small they barely register. There is a reason Taoiseach that Ireland is now the only country in the EU with a nitrates derogation because the derogation is simply incompatible with good water quality. And I know you'll accuse me and the Social Democrats of attacking farmers but nothing could be further from the truth. As a party we just don't peddle obvious falsehoods and inherent contradictions so we don't claim you can spread disproportionate levels of nitrogen on soil and keep our rivers clean. Not when we all know agriculture runoff is our biggest pollutant. That is not anti-farmer that is just fact. So can I ask you Taoiseach do you accept that fact and if not can you just come out and say it? That protecting our waterways and biodiversity simply isn't a priority for the government. Taoiseach to respond. First of all it is a priority for government and I would say that the EPA report has serious findings. There are some positives in terms of some areas that have improved and I think the report recommends particularly the Bannow area to study that more as to what are they doing there that could be replicated elsewhere. But we have set up as you know a cabinet subcommittee specifically on water quality to oversee the implementation of the Programme for Government Commitments and there are a number of key ministers on that. And there is first of all in terms of investment in water quality there is an overall national development plan allocation for water. The government has now over the next one we have allocated about £12.2 billion for water services and water quality. And of this about 95% of that, that's about £11.7 billion is earmarked directly for Ischia, Airden. And then rural water infrastructure a further £230 million in terms of group water schemes and so forth. River lake coastal water quality restoration about £306 million have been allocated to that. And again substantial amount of money in terms of Irish water is for capital which means upgrading water treatment plants, removing supplies from EPA remedial action list, eliminating contamination risks, new wastewater treatment plants, upgrading sewage infrastructure, eliminating untreated sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters, water mains replacement, pipe upgrades, national leakage reduction programme. So that's the level of investment we're putting in which is unprecedented. So you cannot say that government is not prioritising water quality because that is one very effective way of improving it. And by the way I would say in passing that Irish water needs to dramatically reduce its own, the pollution emanating from its own discharges, half of which are operational issues which in my view is absolutely unacceptable from a governance and management perspective. In terms of agriculture there is a significant issue there. We have never said there wasn't. But we have again in a range of initiatives provided supports for farmers to take additional measures to improve water quality. The Farming for Water EIP over 60 million was launched in 2024 involving Talgis, the Dairy Industry Ireland, LAWPRO and about 5,500 applications from the farming community. Since 2015 close to 200 million has supported investment in manure storage, low emission slurry spreading equipment. There's about 54,000 farmers now participating in Acres while ACIP continues providing free confidential water quality advice through to 2027. Thank you Taoiseach. Sorry I'll come back later. Deputy Cairns. Taoiseach in the 1980s we had over 500 pristine rivers. Now it's just 20 and actually it's probably less than that because that's a 2018 figure. So to stand up here and say that this is a priority for government simply is not credible. Agriculture runoff was responsible for pollution in approximately 1,000 water bodies and your government consistently fights for a derogation for Ireland to be able to apply more chemical applications to the soil than inevitably run off into the river. Simultaneously not that we needed further evidence that this wasn't a priority for government but incredibly research is being done on alternatives to applying chemical nitrogen. We know that red clover can be as effective in terms of fixing nitrogen into the soil and only last month the government shelved that scheme. So Taoiseach stand up again and tell me how, how is it credible to say that you're prioritising water quality in terms of agriculture runoff? Taoiseach please. Well again the de-restoration of the or the maintenance of the nitrates derogation we've been availing of that derogation since 2006 primarily because of a grass-based farming system which is much different to systems across the European continent and about 7,000 farmers have participated in that which by the way those participating farmers probably have a higher and better record than those outside of the derogation and by the way it's more complex than you're articulating. In some tillage areas you can have significant runoff. It's not all dairy depending on, please I didn't interrupt you, depending on soil composition and depending on other factories. I looked at the data in terms of estuaries, quite a significant improvement in terms of phosphorus in relation to estuaries not so much in terms of rivers and lakes. It's not where it should be, no question, but we have a number of fronts. You could yes end the directive tomorrow morning. Thank you Taoiseach. But that would have huge impacts on the dairy industry and other industries. Thank you Taoiseach. You haven't spelt that out. Deputy Ivana Bacik, Deputy Ivana Bacik please. Deputy Bacik.