Brussels asks Court to fine Ireland over urban waste water failures

The European Commission has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to impose financial penalties on Ireland for failing to comply with a 2019 ruling on urban waste water treatment. The action was brought on 3 August 2026 and registered as Case C-866/26; it was published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, of 28 September 2026 under reference C/2026/4872.

The ruling Ireland has not complied with

The Commission asks the Court to declare that Ireland has failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 260(1) TFEU by not taking all measures necessary to comply with the judgment of 28 March 2019, Commission v Ireland (C-427/17, EU:C:2019:269). That judgment found Ireland in breach of Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment (OJ 1991 L 135, p. 40).

The Commission submits that the failure persists in respect of eight agglomerations, and that the referral decision was taken on 11 December 2025. The Commission’s agents in the case are E. Sanfrutos Cano and K. Mifsud-Bonnici.

Eight agglomerations still in breach

The Commission sets out three heads of non-compliance:

• Article 3(1) and (2) of Directive 91/271/EEC: collecting systems in six agglomerations — Athlone, Cork City, Fermoy, Mallow, Midleton and Roscommon Town — continue to suffer unaddressed, unverified or excessive storm water overflows.
• Article 4(1) and (3): secondary or equivalent treatment is not ensured for eight agglomerations. For Rathcormac, effluent monitoring still shows non-compliance with BOD and COD standards; for Ringsend, existing capacity of 2.1 million population equivalent remains insufficient for a generated load of over 2.12 million p.e., causing continued environmental harm and bathing water restrictions in Dublin Bay.
• Article 5(2) and (3): more stringent tertiary treatment before discharge into sensitive areas is not ensured for six agglomerations, with Ringsend still failing mandatory standards for total phosphorus and total nitrogen removal.

The penalties requested

The Commission asks the Court to order Ireland to pay:

• A lump sum of EUR 11 040 multiplied by the number of days between the 2019 judgment and either compliance or the judgment in the present proceedings, with a minimum lump sum of EUR 2 567 000.
• A penalty payment of EUR 99 072 per day from the date of the new judgment until Ireland complies with C-427/17, if the failure continues.
• The costs of the proceedings.

How the amounts were calculated

The penalties follow the Commission’s 2022 Communication on financial sanctions, as updated in 2025. The seriousness factor is 12 on a scale of 1 to 20, reflecting a non-compliant generated load of 2 597 200 p.e. — roughly 50 % of Ireland’s total national load — repeated non-compliance and a failure lasting over seven years. The duration factor is the maximum 3, for the 80 months elapsed between the 2019 judgment and the referral decision, and the deterrent factor is 0.80, reflecting Ireland’s capacity to pay.

The daily penalty is subject to a six-monthly degressive reduction of EUR 0.038 per day for each population equivalent brought into verified compliance against the baseline of 2 597 200 non-compliant p.e.

The case is the latest step in a procedure that has run for more than seven years and touches roughly half of Ireland’s urban waste water load. If the Court grants the request, the daily penalty would accrue until the eight agglomerations are brought into compliance, with direct consequences for water quality and bathing waters in the affected areas.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, No C/2026/4872, 28 September 2026, section I, p. 1-2 (official reference: CELEX:C_202604872).