Waterways Ireland, the cross-border body which manages more than 1,000km of inland waterways, including rivers, should have more of a role in “monitoring” water quality, a TD has said.
According to the People Before Profit TD, Bríd Smith, Irish rivers are currently “being taken care of by two different states”.
“Waterways Ireland is really the only functioning cross-border body since the peace process and they don’t seem to have oversight on this,” Deputy Smith said.
The TD has raised the issue of how compliance with European Union nitrates directives and other environmental protection regulations “are enforced or monitored along the border counties” with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Ireland shares two river basin districts (RBD) with Northern Ireland, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Neagh Bann International RBD has 35 shared water bodies. The North Western International RBD has 85 shared water bodies.
Water quality
Deputy Smith also asked Minister Darragh O’Brien “if he or his department have had any correspondence or discussion with officials from Northern Ireland in relation to defective slurry/effluent tanks built and operated in Northern Ireland which discharge into waterways feeding into the south”.
She also raised concerns about what action would be taken in “the event of pollution and damage being caused to waterways in the Republic of Ireland from effluent originating in Northern Ireland”.
“I’m not insinuating that agriculture practices are worse in the north than they are in the south, but I’m just drawing to the fact that we need to have them monitored.
“What we need is oversight between the states on what’s going on with water quality,” Deputy Smith told Agriland.
Minister O’Brien confirmed to the People Before Profit TD that neither he or his department “received any correspondence or had discussions with officials from Northern Ireland in relation to defective slurry/effluent tanks”.
The minister added: “In terms of protecting our water resources, primary responsibility for the monitoring, management, protection and improvement of water quality is assigned to local authorities under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts and related legislation.
“The EPA exercises general supervision in relation to the performance of these functions by local authorities.”
According to Minister O’Brien his department is currently preparing Ireland’s third cycle River Basin Management Plan which will be “a strategic government plan that will outline the national policies and high-level goals” to protect and restore natural waters.
He said that agencies in Northern Ireland “are continuing with the implementation of their River Basin Management Plan”.
“Substantial areas lie within cross-border river basins in Ireland, with waters in each jurisdiction flowing into or through the other jurisdiction,” Minister O’Brien said.