*Photograph: John Mangan
LAHINCH BEACH has reopened to swimmers with the lifting of a prohibition on bathing.
Clare County Council lifted the red flag at the popular coastal spot on Thursday afternoon, the notice had been in place since Tuesday. The prohibition was removed on the advice of the HSE.
Prohibitions on swimming at Lahinch were also issued in August 2019 and August 2020.
Over the past four years, there have been ten separate do now swim notices issued for Lahinch, Kilkee, White Strand (Miltown Malbay), Spanish Point and White Strand (Doonbeg). In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Kilkee was hit with swimming bans lasting a combined 21 days. Two of these notices were directly attributed to a malfunction at the sewage pumping station caused by a burst in the rising main.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) highlighted, “It’s a serious situation when you have to close a beach, it makes people not have faith in swimming, Lahinch is a hugely popular tourist destination and for locals who want to swim”.
Senator Garvey warned, “It is a huge health issue, we know of people who have got e-coli poisoning and have been sick for days, it can affect pregnant women and people oith existing health challenges, a young woman who got kidney failure is still in treatment, we need to see more regular testing. This is a huge issue and we have to solve it. What do the local authority need, they don’t want to be closing down the beach and want their blue flag beach maintained, we need action”.
“It is a reoccurring issue but nothing has changed, the local authority will close the beach and put up signs, they will carry out testing but the problem will not be fixed,” the Inagh native stated. “This is the third or fourth year in a row that this has happened, what is happening with the local authority with regards to dealing with this, they need to outline what supports they need to stop this”.
That the Environmental Protection Agency only has eleven enforcement officers around the country when it is recommended they have 65 is another issue, Senator Garvey maintained. “There are some agricultural practices undermining the water quality, if you don’t have enforcement or proper investigations”.
She added, “One of the things is the expanding size of holding tanks, the holding tank holds the raw sewerage until it is treated but the storm water also goes into the tanks, they are getting full sooner”.
