Public Consultation on the Designation of Heavily Modified Water Bodies for Ireland’s third cycle River Basin Management Plan

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage invites submissions, observations and comments on the designation of heavily modified water bodies for Ireland’s third cycle River Basin Management Plan.

The purpose of this consultation is to seek the public’s views on the designation of Ireland’s heavily modified water bodies. A previous consultation was undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 and this current consultation seeks to gather views on the final designation steps. This public consultation will run to 23 May 2025.

To assist the public in making submissions, a short document has been drafted to explain the process of heavily modified water body designation. A file outlining the list of potential heavily modified water bodies and the reasons behind their designation is also supplied here along with a file indicating the current 2016-2021 Water Framework Directive Ecological Status of the candidate water bodies. The relevant documents may be accessed by clicking on the links in the section titled ‘Documents’.

If you have any submissions, observations or comments, these can be sent directly to us at wau@housing.gov.ie

Written submissions can be sent to:

Water Advisory Unit,

Heavily Modified Water Body Consultation

Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, Custom House,

D01 W6X0

Interested parties are invited to make written submissions or comments no later than 5:00pm, 23 May 2025.

Please note: that all submissions received may be made available on the Government’s website. See the consultation’s terms and conditions under the ‘Documents’ section for further information.

• Designation of Ireland’s HMWBs arising out of the 2024 Water Action Plan (Consultation Document).

• 2025 HMWB Designation Consultation Privacy Statement

All submissions and comments submitted to the Department for this purpose are subject to release under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 and the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007-2014. Submissions are also subject to Data Protection legislation.

Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission (other than your name or contact details). It will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

The information provided by respondents will be used in order to review and finalise the list of Heavily Modified Water Bodies for the third cycle River Basin Management Plan 2022-2027.

Please note:

Submissions and observations received will be made available on the Department’s website, unless otherwise requested. In any event, all submissions received will be subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, Access to Information on the Environment Regulations and Data Protection legislation. See also the terms and conditions under the Documents links above.