Debate contribution: Lough Neagh: Blue-green Algae
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Lough Neagh: Blue-green Algae
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5762245
Read the official Assembly record
Text
We are making steady progress on the delivery of the Lough Neagh action plan. A number of actions are particularly challenging, one of which sits with the Department for Infrastructure, namely investment in waste water infrastructure. That is one of the key issues. We need to be brave and face up to that issue. It is holding back housebuilding and economic development, and it is also polluting our waterways. Sound bites will not cut it. It means facing up to the stark realities that we need to make sure that our waste water infrastructure is properly funded. I will support the Executive in their case to the UK Government for a fairer funding settlement, but we need to look at what we can do. We are perpetuating a cost-of-living crisis because we are not dealing with the issues. As you will know, house prices are increasing because we are not investing in that area, but that lack of investment is also polluting Lough Neagh and many other waterways.
168 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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