{"id":490684,"date":"2026-06-09T13:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490684\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:39:10","slug":"local-authority-facing-water-quality-issues-asks-for-the-publics-help-in-finding-new-swimming-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/490684\/","title":{"rendered":"Local authority facing water quality issues asks for the public’s help in finding new swimming spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local authority hit by swimming bans due to water quality issues is asking members of the public to \u201csuggest and support areas\u201d for official bathing status.<\/p>\n

D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council explained that the profile for each suggested site should include a description of the area, potential pollution sources, risk assessments, and actions in case of pollution.<\/p>\n

The council wants regular swimmers to tell them about how the area is used, how busy it is, what facilities there are and what access is like, along with any safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201c(People) can suggest a new location or comment on an existing one,\u201d a council statement said.<\/p>\n

Each year, the council must decide which bathing waters, such as the sea, rivers, or lakes, are commonly used by the public for swimming during the bathing season.<\/p>\n

To this end, the public is asked to provide input to identify bathing areas.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has guidance explaining what information is needed to suggest a bathing area, and how these suggestions are assessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf certain beaches are not already listed this could be for various reasons such as low numbers of bathers, access issues, poor water quality or limited facilities,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n

Current identified bathing areas include Seapoint Beach, Sandycove Beach, the Forty Foot Bathing Area, Killiney Beach, White Rock Beach and D\u00fan Laoghaire Baths.<\/p>\n

The consultation period via an online survey runs from June 8th to July 24th this year.<\/p>\n

The council must meet its legal responsibilities under the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008 and provide safe, high-quality bathing areas for everyone.<\/p>\n

However, bathers are currently being warned not to swim at nine popular swimming spots in the council\u2019s are due to heavy and persistent rainfall.<\/p>\n

One new and three extended prohibition notices have been put in place by the council.<\/p>\n

The ban, which was imposed last Saturday, is now affecting Seapoint, close to D\u00fan Laoghaire, and will remain in place until this coming Thursday.<\/p>\n

The no swimming notice has also been extended at Blackrock Baths, Corbawn Strand, and at the Forty Foot.<\/p>\n

Prior warning notices are also five other bathing bans which are to last until this coming Thursday for Coliemore Harbour, Sandycove, D\u00fan Laoghaire Baths, Killiney Beach and Whiterock Beach.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the council outlined that \u201cadditional (water quality) sampling\u201d is to be carried out.<\/p>\n

The council said that due to the weather forecast of \u201cheavy and persistent rain over the weekend and into early next week, and the increased risk of storm water overflows,\u201d the warning notices have been issued.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Kerry<\/p>\n

Ireland<\/p>\n

Kerry hotel found to have discriminated against Irish worker in redundancy case<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

They said that the situation will be \u201cmonitored\u201d over the weekend, and tests are scheduled to take place at high tide 7am on Tuesday (today) with results due on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Several of the bathing spots affected have been closed on numerous occasions over the past number of years due to water quality issues caused primarily by heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classed the water quality at D\u00fan Laoghaire Baths as “poor” due to isolated pollution incidents such as stormwater overflows in 2025. The agency said that a bathing restriction\/advisory notice be issued.<\/p>\n

However, the council questioned the EPA\u2019s stance and noted that over three years up to 2026, the water met “good” standards and up until the current prohibition, testing indicated it is excellent and safe for swimming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local authority hit by swimming bans due to water quality issues is asking members of the public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-490684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}