Meet Our Members! Today we're introducing Carra Mask Corrib Water Protection Group. Watch the video to learn more about the great work being done including to protect Ireland's longest living animal 👀
Sustainable Water Network (SWAN)
@swanireland.ie
Network of 26 of Ireland’s leading local & national environmental groups, working together to protect Ireland’s rivers, lakes, bays, seas & groundwaters. https://swanireland.ie/
"Open net cage farming is just not suitable for Ireland, or any other country for that matter" - John Murphy, Salmon Watch Ireland. This destructive & cruel practice must be phased out. Sign our petition to call for it📝👇 https://swanireland.ie/take-action/ban-open-net-fish-farms/
❗More than 500 fish found dead in Tolka river! 🐟Species found included brown trout, eel, stickleback, lamprey and minnow. Read more here https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2026/0802/1586195-fish-kill-dublin/
📢WORKING TOGETHER FOR BETTER WATER Join us at our free Who’s Who in-person event in the #Fane Catchment on 5 August, to meet local organisations, learn about efforts to improve water quality, and discover how you can get involved in our Educational Community Outreach (#ECO) Programme. 🧵👇
Check out SWANs feature in the Irish Independents Climate Changemakers article here https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/climate-changemakers-the-group-focussed-on-helping-push-for-cleaner-healthier-waterways/a/159012631.html Sign up to our newsletter here https://swanireland.ie/email-news-signup/
Another DEVASTATING fish kill!! 4,500 fish reported found dead over 2km stretch of river flowing through Co. Cavan. ❗These disasters need to stop.
🚨Pearl Mussel Kill on the Owenriff river in Co. Galway! Devastating news shared with us by our member organisation, Carra Mask Corrib Water Protection Group! Much more needs to be done to protect freshwater pearl mussels and the clean, free-flowing rivers on which they depend.
Check out SWANs feature in the Irish Independents Climate Changemakers article here https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/climate-changemakers-the-group-focussed-on-helping-push-for-cleaner-healthier-waterways/a/159012631.html Sign up to our newsletter here https://swanireland.ie/email-news-signup/
Article on requirements to test raw water for drinking supplies featuring SWAN's Freshwater Policy Officer, Dr. Puneeta Sreenivas.
Irish Water scaled back tests on Balbriggan drinking water. Does it matter?
It still tests the water that comes out of the treatment plant and flows to taps, but not the "raw water" in the ground that feeds it.
dublininquirer.com
"Genetic introgression from domesticated farmed salmon has the potential to weaken those local adaptations & reduce the resilience of wild populations at a time when they are already under enormous pressure." www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/comm... Ban open-net farms!👇 swanireland.ie/take-action/...
Ban Open Net Fish Farms - Sustainable Water Network
Salmon aquaculture in Ireland is polluting coastal waters, contributing to the collapse of wild salmon and driving overfishing for its feed – all despite organic labelling. Phasing out these open-net ...
swanireland.ie
Galway Harbour, the Barrow River, and the Tolka River listed as “potential contamination hotspots” in research commissioned by the EPA. Read the full Independent article here https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/potential-pollution-hotspots-with-hazardous-chemicals-identified/a/158888379.html
"Escaped farmed salmon have been interbreeding with Ireland’s endangered wild salmon, leaving traces of their DNA in 1/3 of fish tested" lowering survival & reducing resilience of wild salmon Ban open-net farms! Sign our petition: swanireland.ie/take-action/... www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Evidence of interbreeding with farmed fish raises fears for wild salmon
DNA from escaped stocks could be a damaging evolutionary force, scientists say
irishtimes.com
SWAN Policy Officer, Emma spoke on Highland Radio about the devastating impacts of open-net fish farming on wild salmon in Ireland. Time is running out to save this iconic species. Sign SWAN's petition to ban open net fish farming. https://swanireland.ie/take-action/ban-open-net-fish-farms/
“Open-net salmon farming drives the degradation of our coastal waters & fuels the dramatic decline of our iconic salmon." "Phasing them out from our ocean is essential if we’re to have healthy seas & rivers, thriving wildlife, and flourishing coastal communities." swanireland.ie/2026/07/swan...
SWAN urges ban on open-net salmon farms to protect water and wildlife - Sustainable Water Network
The Sustainable Water Network (SWAN), a coalition of twenty-six of Ireland’s leading environmental organisations working on water, has launched their new policy position and campaign on aquaculture in...
swanireland.ie
Our petition to ban the destructive and cruel practice of open-net fish farms in Ireland has got over 1,000 signatures in a day! 🐟🎉 Thanks to all who have signed 👏👏👏 Please share & like so we can get much more ♻️ The link to the petition & more info on it is here 👇 swanireland.ie/take-action/...
'the presidency “presents significant environmental risks”, particularly through the simplification agenda, which... is “better understood as deregulation rather than improved regulation”' Excellent article 👇. www.desmog.com/2026/07/14/c...
Can Ireland Deliver as ‘Honest Broker’? Here’s What’s at Stake for Climate and Nature in EU Council Presidency
Environmental campaigners are urging Ireland to protect the public interest and resist industry pressure as the country takes up the presidency of the EU Council. The EU’s top agricultural polluter to...
desmog.com
Open-net fish farming in Ireland pollutes our bays, contributes to the collapse of our wild salmon, and drives overfishing for its feed. All while claiming to be organic! 🐟💩🥅 This destructive & cruel practice must be phased out. Sign our petition to call for it. 📝👇 swanireland.ie/take-action/...
Ban Open Net Fish Farms - Sustainable Water Network
Salmon aquaculture in Ireland is polluting coastal waters, contributing to the collapse of wild salmon and driving overfishing for its feed – all despite organic labelling. Phasing out these open-net ...
swanireland.ie
"Why should we tolerate having to live on an island where we end up drinking, washing and swimming in water laced with our own excrement?"
Eamon Ryan: We live on an island where we drink, swim and wash in water laced with our own excrement
Some 800,000 rural dwellers rely on their own private wells, and 38 per cent of these regularly fail to meet contamination standards
irishtimes.com
@eeb.org's water asks for Irish Presidency of Council of EU 💧Support ambitious Water Resilience Strategy 💧Pushback against weakening of EU main water law & nitrates law & push for implementation instead 💧Adoption of the Council Conclusions ahead of the UN Water Conference eeb.org/wp-content/u...
Listen back to SWAN's Freshwater Policy Officer, Dr Puneeta Sreenivas on @nearfm.ie discussing water pollution, enforcement and fish kills in Ireland. Full interview available here https://listenagain.org/?p=62028
Is the state failing our rivers and lakes? Michael speaks to @swanireland.ie listenagain.org?p=62028 #spéirghorm
State Is Failing Our Rivers, Lakes And Sea’s, Say SWAN – Near FM – Listen Again
listenagain.org
The govt is feeling the pressure to get effective legislation passed to protect Ireland's seas. Thanks to everyone who signed the @fairseas.ie petition and emailed ministers to get it this far 🙏 Now it will progress through the Oireachtas & we'll need to put the pressure on to ensure it is robust.
Fair Seas@fairseas.ie · 4w agoToday Ireland takes the next official step towards healthy seas as Government approves drafting of the Maritime Area Planning (Marine Protected Areas) (Amendment) Bill 2026. https://fairseas.ie/2026/07/08/marine-protected-areas-legislation-general-scheme-an-important-milestone/ #FairSeas
SWAN's own Emma Armshaw featured in UCC's Alumni magazine talking about her role as Marine and Coastal Policy Officer at SWAN and inspiring career change to play her part in saving the seas 🌊 Read the article on page 10 here https://issuu.com/discoverucc/docs/the_bridge_-_2026?fr=sZTNjNTkwOTU2Njg
Many of the important cases NGOs and individuals have taken to improve water quality over the years may not have been possible if these caps had been in place at the time. This legal challenge is crucial for the future of water quality.
Elaine McGoff @elainemcgoff.bsky.social · 4w agoYesterday @antaisce.bsky.social and @FIE launched a legal challenge to the new judicial review cost caps. These new caps mean, if a member of the public or eNGO wins their case, they will still have to pay tens of thousands to correct the mistake by the State. www.antaisce.org/News/environ...
"What we would say is that the government is failing both water quality and it's failing farmers" We were asked last week at Oireachtas Committee about the need to give farmers credit for work done & not just blame for water pollution. Something we are often asked. Listen to our response here.
Yesterday @antaisce.bsky.social and @FIE launched a legal challenge to the new judicial review cost caps. These new caps mean, if a member of the public or eNGO wins their case, they will still have to pay tens of thousands to correct the mistake by the State. www.antaisce.org/News/environ...
Environmental groups launch legal challenge against new regulations that severely restrict access to justice
Together, An Taisce and Friends of the Irish Environment initiated a court challenge to new regulations that put a cap on the costs litigants in environmental legal cases can recover if they win their...
antaisce.org
“There should be a zero tolerance approach to issues like this moving forward” – Dr Puneeta Sreenivas, SWAN. The issue of wastewater featured heavily at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tuesday. Watch back some of points raised by SWAN and the Irish Environmental Network.
If I read one more reference to 'gold plating' of EU law in Ireland....Can anyone show me the evidence? Should we look to the over half our rivers and lakes polluted? The trend which is getting worse? The 25% of our most pristine waterbodies now lost? A 🧵 www.irishtimes.com/ireland/hous...
Top Government adviser calls for action to roll back ‘gold-plated’ environmental law
Laws exempting key projects from national climate goals should be followed by moves to curtail environmental screening, says taskforce chief
irishtimes.com
"noncompliance rates aren’t exceptional; they’re the norm. Years go by, but the story remains the same: nature absorbs the impact because the political will isn’t there to make the consequences of pollution serious enough to stop it." Excellent article 👇 www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
Ireland punishes tax evaders. Pollution should be just as risky
Nature absorbs the impact of polluters because the political will isn’t there to make the consequences serious enough to stop them
irishtimes.com