To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs whether he will consider increasing water quality sampling at designated bathing sites more frequently than weekly.

The current statutory regime of testing is considered sufficient in monitoring the general health of bathing waters. However more frequent sampling of waters is already undertaken in reaction to pollution events which may affect the quality of a bathing water.

As part of the statutory annual bathing water monitoring programme, all 26 of Northern Ireland’s identified bathing waters are sampled and tested for microbiological parameters on a minimum of 19 occasions between 01 June and 15 September each year (the bathing season), with additional sampling just prior to the commencement of the bathing season. A reduced programme of sampling was carried out during 2020, due to the COVID restrictions.