Debate contribution: Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 30 June 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

30 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5653329

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Opposition on the Second Stage of the Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill, which we will support as it proceeds to Committee Stage. It is important to say that this Bill marks an important modernisation of powers, but it comes in a context that is important to acknowledge. That context is multifarious and touches on all the types of waterways and marine and inland water environments that we are debating in this Bill. We obviously have the crisis in Lough Neagh. It is a multifold crisis in terms of ecological devastation that has an onward impact on the treasured stocks of Lough Neagh eel and pollan that are an extraordinarily precious part of our culture, our food offering and the produce from this part of the world. Lough Neagh eel and pollan stocks are both depleted and depleting, in part as a result of the ecological crisis. The Minister has had to impose fairly swingeing restrictions on the Lough Neagh eel fishermen, who have been dealing with a crisis in the lough that, in most cases, they have been fishing for generations. That is part of the broader collapse of the Lough Neagh ecosystem. The sci-fi images that we have seen are connected to historical intensification. The soil around Lough Neagh is also connected to long-running problems with Northern Ireland Water. We also have a looming crisis in Belfast lough, where similar but distinct issues are arising. More generally, we also have challenges that have been created around fisheries stocks in our coastal waters, which present challenges for our coastal communities who want to be able to fish to earn a living, generate income and sustain jobs in those communities. I grew up close to Ardglass and went to school with many kids of people who were employed in the fishing trade in Ardglass. Indeed, when I was about 10 years old, I made a documentary with BBC Northern Ireland about the Ardglass fishing industry. I wonder whether anyone can find it; it was one of the first times that I engaged in being on camera. I know all about it: we have lots of family friends who are engaged in the fishing trade in that part of the world. Members mentioned Portavogie and Kilkeel. Fisheries are not just how people earn their living in those towns and villages; they are core to the DNA of those places. They are where they get their sense of identity from, in a sense, so it is hugely important that we support them.

Clearly, however, the regulatory and enforcement regime for all those watercourses and marine environments is way out of date ecologically and, indeed, economically. As Mr Butler said, it is a false dichotomy to talk about choosing between sustainability and the economic side of things, meaning turning the environmental against the economic. If you devastate and are unable to replenish stocks, and if the ecology declines to such an extent that the stock cannot be sustainably farmed and fished, you do not have an industry by which those communities can sustain themselves. The dichotomy of turning one against the other is false. It is also true to say, frankly, that we are one of the most nature-depleted regions in the world. There is an issue there that pertains to the marine water environments too; it is not just on land. I am pleased to see that this Bill is intended to tighten up the regulatory space in order to protect sensitive species, improve biodiversity and bring greater health to marine and inland water ecosystems. The Bill does a range of things by way of enforcement. It provides fisheries officers with more modern enforcement powers. It introduces fixed penalty notices for appropriate fisheries and water environment offences. It increases penalties for the most serious offences and allows enforcement action to be more proportionate to the nature of the offence. All too often during the — amazingly — six and a half years for which I have been an MLA, I have heard questions to the AERA Minister about one fish kill or another. It often seems that those things happen with impunity. I would like to hear from the Minister how the Bill will specifically improve enforcement and, frankly, increase the punishment for those who cause things such as fish kills.

The Bill will also modernise the licensing system, as has been said, by replacing the existing fish culture licence with a broader aquaculture licence, that will expand the licensing framework to cover newer forms of aquaculture, including activities such as seaweed farming, while providing flexibility for future developments. Although the Committee will study the Bill in detail, I would like to know whether the Minister thinks that that is part of the broader Farming with Nature agenda, which is much further advanced across the water, where there is a different type of regime. I am not comparing the two. We do not make payments to fisheries or to people engaged in related activity in the same way as we do to farmers, but there is, I think, an association by making a stronger link between the regulatory and policy regime and a broader set of ecological and environmental aims rather than a narrow output. If the Minister were able to state whether there is, in his view, policy consistency with the Farming with Nature agenda, such as it is, I would be keen to hear that. The Bill will not solve the environmental challenges that exist in Lough Neagh — far from it. As the Opposition, we have been robust in outlining the ways in which the Executive have not gone far enough or fast enough in addressing that crisis. We were robust in opposing those who were not willing to deal with the nutrients action plan, for example, which should have been a core part of dealing with Lough Neagh. Of course, the farming industry needed to be engaged, and the Minister has been doing a lot of that work recently. However, we welcome the Bill as representing progress in that area. It would be helpful if the Minister were specific in his winding-up speech about the ways in which the Bill's provisions will help the delivery of the outcomes in the Lough Neagh action plan, such as they are. We have been somewhat critical about the relative absence of specific outcomes versus rather more general enabling actions or aspirations. In general, we welcome the improved enforcement and regulatory mechanisms in the Bill. We are pleased, in broad terms, to support it at Second Stage. We welcome the move towards an approach to fisheries management that is ecosystem-based rather than narrowly species-based. We would like to hear from the Minister on whether he sees commonality with other areas of environmental and conservation policy in which the need to recover our, frankly, devastated ecosystem can be balanced with the legitimate economic and community interests of those who earn their living from land, sea and inland waterways. We are keen to support the Bill at Second Stage. We are actively looking at where we can improve and enhance it through amendment. My colleague will scrutinise the Bill at Committee Stage, which will, we hope, proceed without undue delay so that the legislation can be passed before the end of the mandate. I look forward to engaging in more detail, but, at this stage, we are happy to support the Bill and look forward to discussing it in Committee and beyond.

1,257 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:11 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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