Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

19 Executive Summary Water 1. There needs to be immediate, substantial and sustained reductions in nitrogen pollution, especially in catchments of concern in the south and south-east, to prevent any further deterioration in the quality of our estuaries and coastal waters. Targeted measures to reduce phosphate run-off could deliver significant improvements in inland waters and offer multiple benefits for climate and biodiversity. 2. We need to see full implementation of existing environmental legislation and high compliance rates across all regulated activities. A regulatory regime to address activities that impact hydromorphology is also required. All measures must be sufficiently targeted to the water quality issue and location to ensure that they deliver improvements. 3. Water governance structures need to be reviewed to ensure that they operate effectively. Detailed tracking and reporting of measures in Ireland’s Water Action Plan 2024 is required to improve accountability among implementing bodies, public access to information and, ultimately, Ireland’s water quality. 4. It is essential to build climate resilience into water quality management and into water services. Plans – such as the Water Action Plan, the Water Quality and Water Services Climate Adaptation Plan, and Uisce Éireann’s National Water Resources Plan – are key to identifying risks and adaptation measures. The Marine Environment 1. Our wider marine environment is generally clean and healthy, but legislation to maintain this needs to be enforced more rigorously and new priorities addressed more quickly. For example, the delayed marine protected areas legislation is an essential part of the marine spatial planning approach that will ensure that marine developments do not occur at the expense of the wider marine environment. 2. Key pressures are still causing impacts on the biodiversity and productivity of marine ecosystems. Fishing at unsustainable levels is impacting both habitats and the food chain. Nearshore nutrient enrichment has the potential to affect coastal amenity. Measures to combat these issues need to be implemented and enforced, as current trends are indicating that environmental status is not moving in the right direction. 3. There have been many recent changes in marine policy. Policy coherence and coordination needs to be improved to avoid damaging our marine environment and to maximise the benefits of protecting it. Environment and Agriculture 1. Agriculture is an integral part of the fabric of Irish society. It has a key role in delivering, and depends on, a healthy environment. However, our food systems are not currently meeting our sustainability targets and need urgent transformational change. 2. There are many plans and programmes in place, with positive actions being implemented at farm scale, but there is no clear evidence that the current measures will collectively achieve the scale of environmental outcomes that are needed. 3. A shared vision for 2050 for land use and the food system is urgently required. A clear pathway for the agriculture and land use sector, and adequate supports to achieve it, must be put in place. Implementation and an evidence base for assessing progress must be a priority.