Blue Flags - Coastline enhanced

The increase in the number of Blue Flag awards to beaches and marinas around the coastline should be welcomed locally and at national level.

It means people living nearby and visiting tourists can swim in relatively clean water and bask on golden sands, weather permitting.

With 134 beaches and marinas now matching An Taisce’s demanding standard, the flags play a valuable role, not merely by enhancing this country’s international image but also helping to boost local tourism by attracting more home visitors in this era of austerity who can no longer afford foreign holidays.

It’s encouraging to see that beaches which lost their Blue Flag status did so not due to sewage pollution but because some repair works by local authorities in the wake of winter storms are still going on — yet another ominous face of global warming.