The Minister of State with responsibility for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD, has launched the ‘Water Action Plan 2024: Ireland’s third River Basin Management Plan’. This overarching national policy is a key commitment in the Programme for Government and a key step in delivering on Ireland’s obligations under the EU Water Framework Directive.
• ‘Water Action Plan 2024’ is Ireland’s roadmap to protect and restore our rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and groundwaters
• Plan will see an additional 300 waterbodies achieve ‘good’ status by 2027, with targeted measures to improve over 500 more
• Multi-billion Euro investment in wastewater infrastructure, strengthened action on nitrates and a focus on compliance and enforcement
• Community Water Development Fund for 2025 will provide financial supports to local projects and initiatives
The Water Action Plan sets out a roadmap to restore Ireland’s waterbodies to ‘good’ status or better, and protect against further deterioration in the period from 2023 to 2027, through an integrated catchment management approach.
Key actions in the Plan include tighter controls on the use of fertilisers that impact water quality, a greater focus on compliance and enforcement with over 60 new staff at local level, and a target or 4,500 farm inspections per year. In addition, continued investment in wastewater infrastructure will see Uisce Éireann investing a multi-billion Euro budget over the period 2025-2029 to reduce impacts on water quality, a new national River Barriers Mitigation Programme will ramp up efforts to remove river-blocks that impact on species like salmon and lamprey swimming upstream to spawn, and a review of arterial drainage requirements and the underpinning Arterial Drainage Act will be undertaken in the context of land use.
It’s well past time we cleaned up our waterways. That’s why we’re launching Ireland’s new Water Action Plan: a roadmap to restore the water quality of our rivers, lakes, estuaries, coasts and groundwaters and protect against further deterioration. pic.twitter.com/EGUvfOi6if
“It’s well past time to clean up our rivers, lakes and coasts, and that’s what we’re doing with this new Water Action Plan. There are three core aims: to prevent and reduce water pollution, to let more rivers run free and restore their natural ecosystem functions, and to continue the positive trajectory of investment in water infrastructure. This new Plan will deliver on this through an approach that embeds better governance, coordination and accountability, putting tighter controls, more inspections and a focus on enforcement alongside a stronger evidence base for actions that tackle the right problems in the right places. Crucially, communities are at the heart of the effort and will be empowered to understand the challenges in their area and get involved in solving them through new participation structures. As our population grows and our climate changes, it’s vital that everyone puts their shoulder to the wheel to protect the vulnerable water resources that we all depend on.”
Minister of State with responsibility for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD
“This new Water Action Plan is a critical part of the Programme for Government. It strategically builds on what we learned from previous plans, and its combination of short and long term goals, targets and actions will work in unison to protect the quality of our water bodies. This plan puts us on a strong course to protecting our ecosystems and meeting our EU and international obligations.”
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD
“The launch of the Water Action Plan 2024 delivers on a crucial commitment in the Programme for Government, and is a significant achievement in helping Ireland meet its European and international obligations. Water is a critical link in environmental health and biodiversity, and plays a key role in strengthening the resilience of our social, economic and environmental systems. The Water Action Plan 2024 will put us on course to achieve our environmental objectives to deliver the clean water necessary to safeguard public health, support economic growth, protect our natural ecosystems and help preserve our water heritage for future generations.”
Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth of Ireland, Roderic O’Gorman TD,
Today’s launch also saw the announcement of the Community Water Development Fund for 2025. Administered by the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), with funding from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the scheme provides funding to local communities and groups to support the delivery of projects and initiatives to enhance local water bodies and benefit water quality and biodiversity.
Stressing the importance of the fund, Minister of State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Alan Dillon TD said:
“Today we are also delighted to announce the Community Water Development Fund for 2025, which funds local community projects to enhance their local streams, rivers and lakes. The Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO), will administer these funds, which play an important role in the Water Action Plan 2024 as they focus on the participation of the public in water quality and biodiversity.”
Learn more:
The ‘Water Action Plan 2024: Ireland’s third River Basin Management Plan’ is available online at www.gov.ie/RBMP
The EPA Catchments Unit is based in Dublin, and the team is involved with catchment science, chemistry, ecology, hydromorphology, modelling, Geographic Information Systems and planning. We work with the wider EPA, all of our local authorities, the Local Authority Waters and Communities Office, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, and other public bodies and Departments to ensure we have the best available data and information about our catchments.
Who is involved?
Quite simply, everyone in Ireland has a role to play. This can be from something as simple as making sure you don’t pollute your local stream, or a local community working together to establish a Rivers Trust to enhance the rivers and lakes in their area, to a Government Department or Agency helping a Minister implement a new policy to help protect and enhance all our water bodies.
This website has been developed and is maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency, and is a collaboration between the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Local Authority Waters Programme.
Local Authority Waters Programme
The Local Authority Waters Programme coordinates the efforts of local authorities and other public bodies in the implementation of the River Basin Management Plan, and supports local community and stakeholder involvement in managing our natural waters, for everyone’s benefit.
Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA is responsible for coordinating the monitoring, assessment and reporting on the status of our 4,842 water bodies, looking at trends and changes, determining which waterbodies are at risk and what could be causing this, and drafting environmental objectives for each.
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
The Department is responsible for making sure that the right policies, regulations and resources are in place to implement the Water Framework Directive, and developing a River Basin Management Plan and Programme of Measures to protect and restore our waters.
