Debate contribution: Clean Air Strategy: Urban Areas

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on 28 September 2026.

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: Clean Air Strategy: Urban Areas
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5762305

Text

The health effects of air pollution are now well established and backed up by research that shows that there are clear links between air pollution and negative health outcomes. A British Heart Foundation report from 2023, 'Air Pollution and Mortality on the Island of Ireland', highlighted the fact that 936 deaths in Northern Ireland were attributed to fine particulate matter air pollution, 314 of which were the result of circulatory diseases. More recently, in October 2025, a landmark study published by Queen's University Belfast estimated that over 130 lung cancer cases in Northern Ireland each year are attributable to air pollution. That is why I am driving the clean air strategy through to completion in this Assembly mandate. I look forward to getting Executive agreement for the strategy. The main pollutants of concern that affect air quality and human health in Northern Ireland are particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide, ammonia and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

157 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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