Poor wastewater management harming the environment - EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency has warned that poor management of wastewater treatment plants by Uisce Éireann is harming the environment.

A new report found that in 2025, 55% of wastewater treatment plants in Ireland discharged wastewater that failed to meet EPA standards.

The EPA's report - 'Urban Wastewater Treatment in 2025' - found that roughly half of failures were due to deficient infrastructure, while the other half were due to poor operation and maintenance.

It found that "common problems include equipment breakdowns and inadequate procedures and training".

"The number of sites affected by such issues remains far too high, with no significant improvement compared to 2024," the report said.

"Operation and maintenance issues can and must be addressed by Uisce Éireann without delay," the report said.

"Ensuring all treatment plants are effectively managed will significantly improve compliance with licence standards and reduce discharges of inadequately treated wastewater without the need for major capital expenditure."

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Uisce Éireann Wastewater Compliance Senior Manager Niall Horgan said: "We have made significant progress in recent years, but we know there is more to do."

He said Uisce Éireann had invested €2.5 billion in modernising wastewater treatment services since 2020.

Noting the EPA's concerns about failures linked to operational issues he said that they were "delivering improvements in terms of organisational structures, training and procedures".

The EPA report identified 72 priority areas where it said action was "most urgently needed to prevent pollution and to protect the environment".

They included 13 large urban centres in six counties (Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin and Louth) where wastewater treatment plants failed to meet EU standards in 2025.

One of these was Ringsend in Dublin. However by the end of 2025, significant upgrade works had been completed which should see it performing better in the 2026 report.

EPA Programme Manager Noel Byrne said the delivery of "critical infrastructure projects", such as those in Ringsend, was "encouraging".

However, he said that "progress by Uisce Éireann in delivering works at many [of the 72] EPA priority areas remains too slow, with around 60% of these areas still not started. This is prolonging impacts on the environment."

The list also includes 11 towns and villages that saw daily raw sewage discharges in 2025.

Avoca in Co Wicklow was on the list. A new wastewater treatment plant is under construction in Avoca and is due to open next year.

It was among 50 raw sewage discharge sites identified when Uisce Éireann was established in 2013.

"It took a long time to build this plant," Mr Byrne said.

Mr Horgan said it was "important to remember that these things do take time in terms of getting the necessary consents in place, whether it's planning permission, land acquisition [and] EPA licenses".

Uisce Éireann said it has eliminated 85% of raw sewage discharges, with wastewater treatment projects completed or under way at 41 of the 50 sites identified in 2013.

The EPA report also identified 35 priority areas where wastewater discharges were adversely impacting the quality of rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters.

The EPA said: "Uisce Éireann is taking too long to start delivering the improvements needed at three-quarters (26) of these areas, and these delays are prolonging impacts on water quality".

The report identified nine areas where improvements were needed to protect the habitats of critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels.

It said another five areas needed upgrades to protect waters designated for shellfish.

Drinking water 'relatively well protected'

Pat Byrne, Director of Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring at the EPA, said drinking water is "relatively well protected" despite continuous and occasional failures at wastewater treatment plants.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said anytime wastewater limits are exceeded it has an impact on the water it is discharged into.

"Impacting on shellfish, pearl mussel and also on the likes of bathing waters and water is just used by the public and by people.

"Less so drinking water. Drinking water is generally relatively well protected by means of monitoring before extraction from rivers and water," he said.

Mr Byrne added that wastewater treatment plants appear to be running until they fail.

"A lot of these plants, the nature of them is that there's a lot of movement of the effluent, pumping of effluent, so a lot of pumps, a lot of mechanical equipment on those sites to treat it and to move to effluent.

"And what we're seeing is that a lot of these are allowed to operate to failure, rather than preventative maintenance plans being put in place.

"So, they're running it until they break... and the consequences is when it breaks you get a discharge that exceeds limits.

"What we're looking for is that much more preventative maintenance and equally support and training for staff to respond appropriately to incidents," he said.

In 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union found that Ireland had breached the requirements of the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive at 28 urban areas.

In 2025, the European Commission acknowledged progress in addressing compliance at 20 of these areas but considered that the remaining eight were still in breach and referred Ireland back to the court requesting financial sanctions.

Separate to this case, the European Commission began a new infringement procedure against Ireland in 2024, alleging further failures to comply with the directive.

"The likelihood is that we will be paying significant fines as a country for not meeting our wastewater treatment requirements," Noel Byrne said.