Once again Kilkee Beach was closed from May 22nd to May 28th. This regular swimming ban is having a corrosive effect on the reputation of Kilkee as a safe place to enjoy a seaside holiday. Who is responsible?

In the first instance, Irish Water is the body reponsible for maintaining the quality of the water going into the sea at Kilkee Strand. Two years ago they promised a delegation of concerned citizens from the town, which was seeking answers to the water quality problem, that it would be issuing contracts for a new treatment plant in 2020 and works would be completed by end of 2021. On the Irish Water website it now claims that the new water treatment won’t be installed until 2025. Would such incompetence be tolerated in any other place in Ireland?

Another responsible body is Clare County Council. This is the body which actually issues the closure notices. Does it not have a duty of care to the town of Kilkee to investigate thoroughly all instances of alleged pollution before it rubber stamps Irish Water request to issue such closure notices?

HSE. This is the go to body to get information on disease and the causes of same. Some Clare Co Council official contacts someone(?), presumably by phone to get an ‘opinion’ on the safety of Kilkee Beach. Is this someone a bacteriologist who asks for more information before giving a considered opinion or is it some desk-bound bureaucrat who takes the easy option of saying – ‘close the beach’?

The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) must also share a major part of the blame for these ongoing scares. It is the statutary body which is obliged to protect Irish citizens from harm due to environmental pollution. It is failing in it’s legal duty to do this in Kilkee.

Citizens of Kilkee feel almost helpless in the face of the abdication of responsibility by organisations funded by them.