The state's "tolerance of jaw-dropping double standards" on water pollution is undermining the country's drive to improve water quality, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has claimed.

The ICMSA was reacting to the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report on urban waste treatment in 2023, which found that wastewater treatment in many areas is not good enough to prevent wastewater discharges from impacting the quality of rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters.

Denis Drennan, the ICMSA president, cited one example from the report in which a large quantity of sewage was released into a river in Cavan due to a malfunction at a treatment plant, which seemed to go unnoticed for a week.

"Urban waste water is a major source of pollution and farmers believe that brazen double-standards are applying on water quality," Drennan said.

"A policy of pursuit that has farmers being threatened with being put of business if water quality doesn't improve [in which cases] action and censure followed very swiftly with personal consequences for the farmer," Drennan added.

He said that no farmer would be allowed attribute their actions to "a vague systems failure", and they would not be allowed "a timeline of years, decades even" to fix the malfunctioning system or equipment.

Commenting on the bonus payments agreed for Uisce Éireann staff earlier this year, the ICMSA president said: "The questionable image of a state-owned water utility paying its employees hefty bonuses, when the company itself seemed to breach state regulations around water quality...would not be lost on anyone.

"It's just not good enough and either Uisce Éireann and other state outfits are told they have to meet the same standards and rules as the rest of us, or the rest of use are given the kind of pass and latitude that Uisce Éireann and the state seem to want for themselves," Drennan commented.