Debate contribution: Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill: Second Stage
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 30 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill: Second Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5653350
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. As Minister, I am grateful to the Chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee and to Members from all sides of the Chamber for their consideration of the Bill and their contributions to the debate, which have been valuable and useful. I will respond to a few of the issues that have been raised in the debate. The Chair of the AERA Committee raised questions about the adequacy of funding for the Bill. The regulatory impact assessment indicates that there will be no cost to businesses as a result of the Bill. As a result, no additional bid for funding has been made. The marine environment and fisheries fund will be available to provide financial assistance with the delivery of any new policies arising from the Bill, and it is important that we continue that support. What I have outlined about the regulatory impact assessment should, hopefully, also address some of the concerns that Aoife raised in her contribution on the issue. Matthew, you raised a number of issues, most of which I will try to capture, if that is possible. You were right to highlight the state of our rivers, lakes and loughs in Northern Ireland and the impact of that not just on the environment but on the economy more broadly. Perhaps that exemplifies the fact that economic growth and the environment must go hand in hand: without the environment, we cannot have economic growth. We have seen that in the impact on eel fishing; I will meet the Lough Neagh Fishermen's Co-operative later this week about the challenges that its members face. It is important that we support them in facing those challenges but also that we respect science and evidence in making the interventions that are needed to restore water quality not just in Lough Neagh but in other areas such as Belfast lough. That is a concern for me, and it is why we need stronger regulation and enforcement for waste water and to do more on water quality more broadly. The Member referenced fines and penalties relating to fish kills specifically. Every time that a fish kill is reported to me, I feel concern that it is wrong and that it should not be the norm for that to occur a number of times in the spring and summer of each year. You said — I agree with you — that legislation alone will not fix everything, but the Bill is an important tool in the wider interventions that we seek to make, be they related to the sentencing review that the Department of Justice is carrying out, which will include environmental crimes, or to the duty that we all have to report pollution when we see it.
Just before I took up this role, one thing that I was taught by someone who is very learned and had been doing this for many years — he is no longer a Member — was never to quote statistics in the House unless you are entirely sure.
I will write to you with regard to your query. The other issue, as I said, is reporting pollution incidents so that they can be effectively investigated. There is a duty on everyone to do that promptly. A public awareness campaign will start in the autumn to help people understand how to report incidents and how important that is. It is important that we give people knowledge about the role that they can play in tackling pollution. The Member also raised the issue of how Farming with Nature and agrienvironment support schemes intersect with the Bill. The Bill is about fines and penalties for water pollution and many other things. Fundamentally, however, the approach that we take in addressing water quality in Northern Ireland is based on four pillars: education, incentivisation, regulation and enforcement. Moving towards enforcement means that we have collectively failed, so we want to provide education and incentivisation to ensure that pollution situations do not evolve in the first place. Farming with Nature is part of that incentivisation.
As a result of EU exit, which has caused many issues in Northern Ireland and across the rest of the United Kingdom, the agrienvironment support schemes under the ESF were scaled down. I am seeking to re-establish those schemes and roll out that support. Alongside and related to that is the support that we can provide to farmers through the sustainable catchment programme. It has been proven in the North and the South that on-farm advice, alongside support for tree planting, fencing, riparian buffer strips and other nature-based solutions, can have a significant, positive impact on water quality. That is why I was delighted to announce last week that we have secured, through the Shared Island Fund, over £49 million to roll out the sustainable catchment programme in the Blackwater catchment and, in future, we will roll it out in as many other catchment areas in the Lough Neagh area as possible within the funding envelope that we have. It is critical that we do that. Matthew also asked — I am seeking to address all the points that he raised — how the Bill intersects with the Lough Neagh action plan. There is a specific action in the Lough Neagh action plan to review fines and penalties. The Bill seeks not just to do that but to legislate for it. That is how we are following through on those commitments. The Member also asked how the legislation fits with the wider desire to balance recovery of the environment with the economic aspirations that we, rightly, have for Northern Ireland. The Bill seeks to put an ecosystem-based approach at the heart of this and have a proportionate attitude to the issues. Hopefully, that effectively addresses some of the issues that he raised. What we are seeking to do through the Bill is to modernise the legislation on enforcement for inland and sea fisheries and to provide flexibilities. At the moment, we do not have fixed penalty notices for water pollution offences. We have the unnecessary criminalisation of individuals as a result of our having to take that through the courts rather than being able to use fixed penalty notices. The provision of fixed penalty notices will be an effective way forward, subject to the secondary legislation, to allow us to address that issue. I hope that I have covered some of the issues that Aoife Finnegan raised in her contribution about the economic impact assessments and the consultation. Officials will continue to engage with Committee members on that. On the issue of penalties and Northern Ireland Water, I approach life in the spirit of ensuring fairness, openness and transparency, and that is what I seek to provide through all the actions that we are taking to tackle water pollution. I do not think that it is right or proper that there is a separate regulatory regime for Northern Ireland Water. I seek the support of my Executive colleagues to end that so that we tackle water pollution on a fair and equitable basis. In Michelle McIlveen's contribution, there was, I would say, a lot of common purpose in the issues that she set out, such as the need to have clarity. That is what we are seeking through the scrutiny of the Bill. The follow-on from that will be devising those statements and getting them out. We will seek to do that through consultation. It is important that we do that so that whatever we do works on the ground. I get the Member's concerns about secondary legislation, but we are seeking to have primary legislation that gives us the flexibility to provide secondary legislation and provides us with the necessary scrutiny through the affirmative process. We are seeking to strike a balance on that. Miss McIlveen said what I have just said about the need to have a balanced approach to agriculture and waste water pollution. It is important that we do that, because everyone has a role to play. I commend farmers in Northern Ireland for the work that they have done and their commitment to addressing the issue. It is important that Northern Ireland Water also step up. The same Member mentioned the issue with resources in the Department. That is absolutely key. We have significant vacancies in the Department. It is important that we fill those so that we have the resources to deliver for all of Northern Ireland. Kellie Armstrong talked about Strangford lough and the unique aspects of her constituency. It is important that I acknowledge and agree with what Kellie said about environmental sustainability and economic growth going hand in hand. That is what we need to achieve. As she said, the legislation is based on evidence-based policy. That may not be the vogue in some places, but I think that it is still really important, and it is important that whatever we do is underpinned by sound science. The Member mentioned the issuing of fixed penalty notices and rightly linked that to the Lough Neagh action plan, which is where it comes from. Tom Buchanan raised the impacts on hydropower. The requirements in the parts of the Fisheries Act 1966 that have the most impact on the work of hydropower operators are not changed by the introduction of the Bill. That is because those areas fall under the remit of technical conservation measures, which are better outlined in secondary legislation. Any future changes to those parts of the existing Act will be made by regulations and subject to appropriate engagement with stakeholders. Hydro operators are engaged with the river basin management planning process to ensure that their views are at the table in the discussions that are pertinent to their work. Tom, if you have any specific issues about hydro operators, I am happy for you to send a request, and we can arrange a meeting with officials. I thank the officials for their work. Some of them are sitting in the Officials' Box, but many others have worked on the Bill to bring it to the Second Stage. I also thank Members for their constructive contributions to the debate on the Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill. I acknowledge that it was originally the "Fisheries Bill", then it was the "Fisheries and Water Environment Bill", and now it is the "Fisheries, Aquaculture and Water Environment Bill"; maybe it will get an acronym in due course. I thank everyone for their contributions, their support and the questions raised. I commend the Bill to the Assembly. I look forward to engaging constructively with Members, especially those who sit on the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, as the Bill progresses through its stages.
1,792 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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