Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

448 Chapter 16: Environmental Policy Implementation and Performance Topic Box 16.3  Priority actions for Ireland on nature and biodiversity (EC, 2022) ■ Address serious delays and deficiencies in Ireland’s marine Natura 2000 network through the identification, selection and designation of sites under the Birds and Habitats Directives. ■ Complete the designation of terrestrial SACs and put in place the necessary conservation measures based on clearly defined conservation objectives, so that Ireland may meet its objective of maintaining or restoring species and habitats of community interest to a favourable conservation status across their natural range. ■ Take action to end illegal turf cutting on raised bog SACs and to ensure that any turf cutting on blanket bog SACs is fully compatible with their protection in Natura 2000 sites. ■ Take practical steps to address the serious decline of wader populations and further develop the conservation programme for the curlew, both in Natura 2000 sites and in the wider countryside. ■ Step up action on implementing the recommendations set out in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan. Marine ecosystems ■ Implement the recommendations made by the Commission 2 in the staff working document accompanying the Commission communication 3 on recommendations for each Member State and region on the 2018 updated reports for Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). ■ Ensure regional cooperation with Member States sharing the same marine (sub)region to address predominant pressures. Ecosystem assessment and accounting ■ Continue supporting the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, and the development of ecosystem accounting, through appropriate indicators for integrating ecosystem extent, condition and services (including some monetary values) into national accounts. ■ Continue supporting the development of national business and biodiversity platforms, including natural capital accounting systems to monitor and value the impact of business on biodiversity. 2 ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-register/detail?ref=SWD(2022)55&lang=en; accessed 1 August 2024. 3 eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52022XC0314(01); accessed 1 August 2024. 4 water.europa.eu/freshwater/countries/uwwt/ireland (accessed 5 July 2024) Ireland’s performance on water Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the status of Ireland’s inland and marine waters and the pressures facing them. EU water policy is set by the Water Framework Directive and associated supporting national legislation. The Water Framework Directive establishes the objective of achieving at least ‘good status’ for all water bodies by 2015 (extended to 2027), implemented through river basin management plans that set out the measures needed to protect and restore water quality. Ireland has only recently delivered its third national River Basin Management Plan for 2022-2027, and in 2024 the Commission referred Ireland to the CJEU for being late in finalising the plan. Another key water policy instrument is the Nitrates Action Programme, given effect by the Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations (S.I. No. 113/2022), which seeks to prevent pollution of surface water and groundwater from agricultural sources. In its latest semester report for Ireland, the Commission identifies the need for the country to improve its waste water treatment and drinking water infrastructure, noting that public water service infrastructure in Ireland is older than the EU average, with high leakage rates, drinking water supplies still breaching the law in parts of the country and about half of Ireland’s urban waste water still not collected or treated in compliance with the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (EC, 2024). Only half of the urban waste water in Ireland is being treated according to all the requirements of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive based on the latest data for 2022 (EPA, 2023e), which was well below the EU average of 76% in 2021. 4 In 2022 a new system for controlling surface water and groundwater abstractions was introduced in Ireland through the Water Environment (Abstractions and Associated Impoundments) Act 2022, requiring registration of abstractions of over 25 m 3 /day. The level of risk due to water abstraction is deemed to be relatively low in Ireland compared with other water management pressures (EC, 2022). Ireland has yet to deliver a regime for regulating hydromorphological changes to water bodies (EC, 2024).