Fast facts Raw Sewage outflow occurs across from St Albans/Strand Road 10-12x per year Discharge pumps respond to high water level to avoid flooding at St Albans residential area Raw Sewage released is unfiltered with condoms and sanitary products left deposited on the beach amongst faeces Creates an immediate Public Health Hazard to Dublin Bay Sandymount & Merrion Beach Sandymount & Merrion Beach is used by 100s of walkers, pedestrians per day There is no/inadequate public signage of the hazard There is no clean-up operation triggered by DCC or Irish Water It can take + 2 weeks to clean up after each event Correspondence has been formally exchanged with DCC CEO on incidents dating back to 03/06/2022 c/w photographic evidence of the extent of beach erosion and evidence of health hazard and lack of clean-up A complaint to EPA was formally filed 03/11 2022 with all back-up and Irish Water formally closed out the complaint 16/11/2022 The event of 11/05/2023 carries video evidence of the flow and the aftermath on the beach, widely reported on the media Irish Water are responsible for this system BUT carry no responsibility for Clean Up DCC do not accept responsibility for clean-up below the High Water line and will only clean-up on a limited discretionary requested basis on the Strand There is clear acceptance by our agencies of Dublin City Council and Irish Water of the creation of a Public Health Hazard with no effort made to provide signage or clean-up services It is asserted that Ireland’s agencies including the EPA have become normalised to the acceptance of this status on Ireland’s capital city beach – and are prepared to leave the public at risk to this hazard Notes from meeting with Uisce Eireann, Deputy James Geoghegan TD and SAMRA , 4 TH February 2026 Attendees Deputy James Geoghegan TD SAMRA: David Turner - Chair Karl Anderson - Strategic Communications and Media UISCE EIREANN Steve Seymour – Head of Asset Management Ted O’Reilly – Asset Planning Senior Manager Michael Goss – Wastewater Network Manager AGENDA 1. Extent of Current BioHazard · Number of people, children and pets exposure on the city beach · Raw sewage to beach, media : video, pictures (as per SAMRA website) · Dublin Bay (UNESCO Biosphere and the only associated with a capital city) a previous Blue Flag beach - now the 2nd worst performing in the state 2. What is the Plan to STOP the pollution at St Albans outfall ? Opportunity : Inclusion into the promenade flood alleviation scope 3. Immediately Available Actions to Uisce Éireann Signage Clean-up 4. As the Accountable Agency - WHAT IS Uisce Éireann's Commitment Project Timeline 3 decades on MEETING KEY POINTS James Geoghegan invited SAMRA to overview the context of why we’re here after his challenge to Uisce Eireaann (UE) Sean Laffey in the Dail PAC on 6th November SAMRA overviewed key context points commenting on UE opening slide of a St Albans flooding. The correct priority is in place to pump to the beach rather than flood residential home HOWEVER, the city UNESCO beach has become a toxic place and people, children, dogs are routinely getting sick AND this has been going on for 3 decades - what is UE plan ? UE spent 45 minutes explaining from an engineering perspective, why this a legacy issue and a very complex problem to resolve: development of the hydraulic model drainage area plan (DAP) needed to inform feasibility assessments and decisions: 2 years; due to be complete in 2026 for St Albans area For a 1:5 year storm, containment of St Albans upstream drainage area 45,000 people = 17,000m3 tank (9 Olympic swimming pools) and no identifiable storage site However, to set expectations there are 40-50 DAPs in progress across Ireland Also, to get through to a Capital Funded Plan - minimum 7-10 years (and probably more given the reference of the Blanchardstown plan which took 5 years on a greenfield site outside the complexity of Dublin) UE overviewed what they have/are doing with respect to St Albans: weir to reduce backflow improved pump system at Aylesbury improved telemetry for pump activation annunciation pump performance monitoring to avoid breakdowns DCC beach clean-up service to UE at present and staff will transfer to UE by the end of 2026 - increasing transparency UE response Priorities : response < 4hours for internal flooding to certain premises response < 12 hours for flooding to gardens & streets, etc UE confirmed that the above are all incremental and in reality we have minimum 7-10 years to wait with current status quo, to get to a solution - where residents meanwhile have to cope with toxic conditions We asked questions and discussed : possibility of running an extension pipe across the beach to eliminate the risk whilst engineering is underway in parallel - UE - planning permissions/delays incorporation of a local break tank: volume needed too high and space restrictions incorporation of a line into the upcoming flood defence works - will be explored with OPW and Jacobs exertion of external fines from EU - as with Cork impending, not clear this will make a difference exertion of political pressure - unclear In view of the above, we asked UE to consider how to minimise risk to people whilst the engineering is developed: Communication - there is currently NONE Signage - what is in place is INADEQUATE Clean-up - there is currently LITTLE OR NONE SUMMARY UE presented the complexity of the problem that they have inherited and are working through from an engineering perspective UE did not present any options of what they can do to mitigate risk to people UE did not make any commitments or present any mitigation plan at this meeting BUT they undertook to now consider mitigation options David Turner Chair SAMRA
SAMSEC is currently in the process of commissioning an Energy Management Plan for Sandymount. The Steering Committee has engaged Michael Hanratty of IHER as consultant to draw up this plan in co-operation with the committee, which will be funded by our SEAI Sustainable Energy Communities grant of 25,000 Euro. The Energy Management Plan will consist of an audit of energy use in Sandymount, together with a “Register of Opportunities”, or list of ways that residents, community groups and businesses can save energy and improve our area's carbon footprint. The focus will be on retrofitting houses. The Steering Committee has selected 15 homes as 'Domestic Participants, representative of Sandymount house types, to undergo various types of SEAI energy assessments. The reports will be published, anonymously, in the Energy Management Plan, so as to share all the useful practical information about retrofitting, with householders in similar properties. We also must finish selecting 12 non-domestic buildings, in community or commercial use, for energy assessments, and would welcome suggestions. Sandymount's Energy Management Plan should be published, and launched, in October or November. We also hope to join the 'Sustainable Energy Communities Buying Club' organised by CODEMA, City of Dublin Energy Management Agency, which is launching this autumn. This should greatly help to simplify the process for householders trying to organise grants and contractors for retrofitting their projects, large and small. We are very grateful to Gerard Doherty, our SEAI Sustainable Energy Communities mentor, for all his help and support.
Saturday 13th June 2026, Sandymount Village Green This event is being organised by Joseph Lynch, under the auspice of SAMRA (Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association) & in association with Dublin City Council & Sandymount Tidy Towns CoMMunity Association
VILLAGE IDEAS TIMELINE TO DATE The following is a brief summary of the Village Ideas from their inception to the present time. SAMRA is very grateful to the Dublin Waste to Energy Community Gain Liaison Committee for their very generous grants to fund the creation of the Village Ideas and the Community Engagement Programme. We wish to thank Grafton Architects for the commitment, enthusiasm, expertise and professionalism of their team over the course of the project. The consultations with Dublin City Council, from their Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare and his senior officials have been enormously positive and we look forward to delivery on the projects over the coming years. CREATION OF THE VILLAGE IDEAS. In 2022 , during the trialling of the summer weekend pedestrianisation of the north-east side of the Green, SAMRA began to consider the issue of looking at the possibilities to improve the public realm of the village and its environs as a whole, including its links to Dublin Bay. The essence of our thoughts was to unlock the village’s enormous potential and further develop its relationship with the Bay. The context for this included the Sandymount Village Design Statement published in 2011, the 2015 designation of Dublin Bay as a UNESCO Biosphere and the Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028. In the Plan, Sandymount is listed for the preparation of a Local Environmental Improvement Plan. The Plan also lists Sandymount as a 'Key Urban Neighbourhood' with policies to improve these villages for the wellbeing of their communities. We considered a very open brief for improvement of the area, and then requested the world renowned Dublin firm, Grafton Architects, to provide us with a proposal for a project to develop various ideas. Armed with their very enthusiastic response , in April 2023 , SAMRA applied to the Dublin Waste to Energy Community Gain Liaison Committee for a grant to fund the Architect's work and later that year, the Committee provided that grant. Over 9 months in 2024 , in liaison with a SAMRA Subcommittee that included a representative of STTCA, Grafton Architects created the ideas. The Grafton Architects Sandymount Village Ideas Presentation of Aug 2024 wonderfully illustrates an integrated holistic plan of ideas for a series of 12 projects to improve the public realm under the key initiatives. In addition, they developed ideas for a number of small moves that would significantly enhance the village including improved signage, additional seating, planting, and interpretive story boards A number of the main project ideas were subsequently developed as priorities for early delivery. CONSULTATIONS WITH DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL SAMRA decided to approach the key stakeholder, Dublin City Council, to gauge their response to the ideas. We believed that there was little point in bringing the ideas to the community if DCC were not willing to even consider them. At the initiative of the then Dublin Lord Mayor, James Geoghegan, SAMRA and Grafton Architects met DCC key executives in November 2024 , including the Chief Executive, Richard Shakespeare, the City Engineer and Assistant Chief Executive, John Flanagan and other senior Planning officials. They responded extremely positively to the proposals, the level of professionalism of the approach from a voluntary organisation, the involvement of Grafton Architects and indeed the Village Ideas Project as a whole. They were very complimentary of the work carried out and presented to them, and acknowledged that Sandymount is in need of public realm enhancements . It was agreed that as a next step, DCC’s senior executives would review the priority projects at a high level internally across their Architects, Engineers and Planning Departments. They called a meeting with SAMRA in April 2025 , where they repeated their enthusiasm for the project ideas as a whole, and undertook to develope a scheme for the public improvement of the north east side of the Green, which would include traffic calming, ahead of a future project to traffic calm the central area of the village where five roads meet. Further projects will be considered by DCC over the next number of years based on the Grafton Architect's integrated ideas, as funding becomes available. SAMRA met with Richard Shakespeare and his project team last September , where they presented their initial proposals, which were designed to accommodate both uses of the area, as a one-way road with parking on the Green side, and as a pedestrianised area in summer weekends. They informed us that they would be developing them for a Non Statutory Public Consultation in the coming months. That Consultation has since taken place across Dec 25 and early this January. We have since met DCC in early March to review progress. Their plan is to further develop their scheme and lodge a Part 8 Planning application in April. All going well, they will tender the project late this year and start construction in Q1 2027. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME Over the course of the last three SAMRA AGMs and through our various newsletters, we have described many of the Grafton Architects ideas and our progress with DCC on their plans for delivery of the first project. In parallel with our discussions with DCC, in April 2025 SAMRA planned the next stage of the Ideas project which is a comprehensive Community Engagement Programme. We again applied for funding from the Community Gain Liaison Committee covering a public Presentation by Grafton Architects and the design of a dedicated website providing full details on their creation of their ideas. We were successful in obtaining the grant and work to prepare this Engagement Programme commenced in January 2026. The website will be a live site where updates are provided as projects proceed, and feedback is provided by residents, businesses and other stakeholders.
BACKGROUND Flood defences are the No 1 priority for SAMRA on behalf of the community. We have been lobbying consistently for the 6 years for the construction of such defences. In December 2024, Jacobs Engineering was appointed to design the Alleviation Scheme. The project is being led by Dublin City Council on behalf of the Office of Public Works, who are the National Competent Authority for the provision of flood defences. Funding is part of the Government's €1.3bn National Development Plan for flood relief measures. SCOPE OF SCHEME The scheme will consider potential flooding from coastal, drainage and river/streams sources, to alleviate the risk of flooding to the community. It will be developed to provide a determined Standard of Protection (0.5% Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP, 1 in 200 year). CURRENT PROGRESS Public Open Day held in April 2025. Various engineering and environmental tasks are in progress (and will be ongoing throughout the design stage), including surveys, asset condition reporting, and sea level and wave action modelling to inform the design of the coastal protection scheme. Engagement with property owners, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, An Taisce. Design development to second stage of Non-Statutory Public Consultation. NEXT STEPS 2nd Public Consultation - Emerging Coastal Options for defences along Strand Rd. - Q2 2026. 3rd Public Consultation - Preferred Option - Q4 2026. Planning Application to An Coimisuin Pleanala - Q3/Q4 2027. GOVERNMENT ACCELERATING INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY This policy adopted in late 2025 is designed to accelerate the provision of infrastructure which SAMRA assumes will apply to this Flood Alleviation Scheme. The 4 key pillars of the Policy include 1) legal reforms to mitigate delays in statutory approvals for critical infrastructure, 2) statutory approvals reforms to accelerate approvals by the various agencies , 3) obligations on state agencies to coordinate various projects in a particular location and 4) concerted efforts to encourage public buy in to infrastructure projects. SAMRA believes that all these pillars could provide very significant benefits to this project, particularly in terms of timeliness. Legal and approvals reforms are designed to reduce the timeline of the overall Planning processes that will apply to this project. This should hasten the projected construction of the coastal works. The obligations on state agencies to coordinate various projects in a particular location should, in SAMRA's opinion, significantly support the call to include off road cycling infrastructure in this Alleviation Scheme, as SAMRA and others have campaigned for. A solution for the repeated foul sewer discharges to Sandymount Strand, such as an interceptor drain, should also be considered in the scope. This would require various state agencies such as the NTA and Uisce Eireann to engage with DCC and the OPW to deliver these co-location projects. SAMRA believes that public buy in to the project will be significantly enhanced by the provision of such additional projects, which will provide very significant community gains.
Parking has been very constrained in Sandymount over many years for residents, businesses and visitors. In the Village Ideas project, SAMRA examined various proposals to increase parking opportunities around the village, including consideration of various means to encourage a relatively short turnover of shoppers' etc parking on the business streets to discourage day long parking for anyone except residents. In November last, SAMRA met Dublin City Council parking officials to discuss these proposals, and for various reasons including Bye Law regulations, they saw no prospects in these opportunities to improve the situation. In January, SAMRA examined further opportunities, primarily considering various locations where road markings could be adjusted to provide more parking spaces. We have requested DCC to consider such changes through their Traffic Services Request process. We identified possible locations on and just off the Green on Newgrove Avenue that would be particularly helpful in meeting people's concerns. The one on the Green is to do with what appears to be confusion concerning disabled parking. Two new disabled bays were installed some time ago in a new location adjacent to the junction, and it appears that the two existing disabled bays immediately 'downstream' have been removed. However this is not very clear as the old road markings are not fully removed and thus cause confusion. We have requested clearer road markings for these spaces to general parking. On Newgrove Avenue, there is a considerable length of double yellow lines to the right of the entrance to Mount Tabor. In addition, there is a gap in these lines at what is a redundant narrow gate on the Mount Tabor wall. There has been a sign on that gate for some time noting that it is not in use, although that is not there now. At a minimum, a space outside that apparently redundant gate would be very welcome. A review of the extent of the double yellows is also requested. There may be a sight lines issue, but even with some reduction of these lines, some parking bays should not inhibit sight lines in either direction. SAMRA has had a response from DCC about the suggested parking on the gable of Tesco, where DCC have said that the suggested location is on private land. Tesco have since informed us that their land is limited to the line of their building wall, so we are re-visiting this with DCC. Our suggestions for limiting double yellows along Sandymount Rd seem very clear cut as they are outside the walls of houses, away from driveway entrances. Lastly, we have suggested some changes to road markings on Strand Rd adjacent to the junction with Marine Drive. In all, our Requests to DCC could deliver up to 13 spaces. It remains to be seen what their responses will be.
