Public Participation - Identification of Bathing Waters 2025

Local authorities must identify official bathing areas in their area every year so that they can be monitored for safety, water quality and their level of use.

To help with this process, Clare County Council are asking people who swim at beaches, lakes and rivers to tell them if they think they should maintain existing designated bathing waters designations or give a new official bathing area designation to areas that are commonly used for swimming, but not identified at the moment.

Under European and Irish law, Irish local authorities must identify bathing waters each year so that these areas can be monitored to ensure they meet stringent microbiological water quality standards. In some cases, the official bathing areas are also the areas where local authorities focus their resources providing lifeguards during the summer season. These laws also require that the local authority prepares detailed descriptions or profiles for each of the identified bathing water sites that describe not just the bathing area but also areas in the surface waters catchment area that could be a source of pollution. The profiles include an assessment on the risk of pollution and what action would be taken if pollution occurs.

Information on areas already currently designated as bathing waters can be found at Bathing water quality for beaches and lakes in Ireland - Beaches.ie

If you are a regular swimmer and want to help your Council decide which bathing areas should be classified as such, it might be helpful to consider the following:
• How your swimming area has been used up to now;
• How many people use the site;
• What facilities exist at the site and how accessible it is;
• Any safety issues.

If you wish to propose your favourite beach/river etc as a new bathing water site or comment on an existing site please our form using the link below.

Closing date for submissions to Clare County Council is 26/9/2025. For further information please contact 065-6846331.

Local authorities are required under the Bathing Waters Directive and the Bathing Water Quality Regulations 2008 (SI No 79 of 2008) to identify bathing waters on an annual basis. The Directive requires that water quality at all designated bathing waters meets stringent microbiological standards in order to protect the health of people who choose to bathe there.

Privacy

Personal information collected by Clare County Council is done so for us to process your application. Legally we can process this information as it is necessary for us to comply with our statutory / legal obligations. The protection of your personal data is a key priority for the Council and your data will be processed in line with our privacy policy which is on the right hand side of the screen.

Data Protection

Applicants should be aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, information provided by them in this Application may be liable to be disclosed. Applicants are asked to consider if any of the information provided by them in their Application should not be disclosed because of its confidentiality or commercial sensitivity. If Applicants consider that certain information is not to be disclosed because of its confidentiality or commercial sensitivity, Applicants must, when providing such information, clearly identify such information and specify the reasons for its confidentiality or commercial sensitivity. If Applicants do not identify information as confidential or commercial sensitive, it is liable to be released in response to a Freedom of Information request without further notice or consultation with the Applicant. Clare County Council will, where possible, consult with the Applicant about confidential or commercial sensitive information so identified before deciding on a request received under Freedom of Information.