In recent days, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a damning report on water quality in respect of five beaches in north and south Dublin which failed to meet minimum EU water quality standards. The agency says five more beaches, all in north County Dublin, are at risk.

In a region with hundreds of thousands of families and children, we are coming into summer and famous beaches such as the north beach in Rush, Merrion Strand and Sandymount Strand and others are at risk of becoming permanently closed if they continue to fail to meet EU water quality requirements. What does the Government propose to do about this? It is a disaster for the city but it is a particular disaster for the hundreds of thousands of children in the Dublin area who rely on beaches for recreational use, for sport and other activity in the summer but will now be barred from those beaches.

It is not all bad news, by a long shot. The EPA report on bathing water in Ireland in 2017-----

There are ten beaches in Dublin.

It is not just about Dublin. This is a national-----

My question was about Dublin, which is where the biggest population lives.

The overall quality of Ireland's bathing water remains good and 132 out of 142 beaches meet strict EU standards. Seven bathing waters are at poor status, which compares well with other northern European states. Having said that, it is still not good enough and we need to continue to improve. We need a plan for each of the areas where the water quality is not as good as it needs to be and we need the necessary investment to bring that about. We also need to understand in detail the reasons for the issues at present.