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Public Consultation on the Designation of Heavily Modified Water Bodies for Ireland’s third cycle River Basin Management Plan

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage invites submissions, observations and comments on the designation of heavily modified water bodies for Ireland’s third cycle River Basin Management Plan.

The purpose of this consultation is to seek the public’s views on the designation of Ireland’s heavily modified water bodies. A previous consultation was undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 and this current consultation seeks to gather views on the final designation steps. This public consultation will run to 23 May 2025.

To assist the public in making submissions, a short document has been drafted to explain the process of heavily modified water body designation. A file outlining the list of potential heavily modified water bodies and the reasons behind their designation is also supplied here along with a file indicating the current 2016-2021 Water Framework Directive Ecological Status of the candidate water bodies. The relevant documents may be accessed by clicking on the links in the section titled ‘Documents’.

If you have any submissions, observations or comments, these can be sent directly to us at wau@housing.gov.ie

Written submissions can be sent to:
Water Advisory Unit,
Heavily Modified Water Body Consultation
Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, Custom House,
D01 W6X0

Interested parties are invited to make written submissions or comments no later than 5:00pm, 23 May 2025.

Learn more:

Please see the gov.ie website for full details: https://www.gov.ie/en/consultation/670a7-public-consultation-on-the-designation-of-heavily-modified-water-bodies-for-irelands-third-cycle-river-basin-management-plan/

About author

EPA Catchments Unit

Administrator

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.