Debate contribution: Rivers: Pollution
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 20 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Rivers: Pollution
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5798697
Read the official Assembly record
Text
We as a Department take a range of actions to look after our rivers, lakes and loughs. There is a four-pillar approach: education, incentivisation, regulation and enforcement. On agricultural pollution, as the Member will be aware, a lot of effort is made on education and incentivisation. The sustainable farming investment scheme and Farming with Nature are examples of the support that we provide, and £49 million from the Shared Island Fund will be used to provide education on the ground to farmers in the catchment areas. Alongside that, it is important that we take action on regulation and enforcement. I set out during Question Time that we are looking to update our enforcement policy to make sure that we have the right balance. On the regulatory regime, there is a separate arrangement for Northern Ireland Water that is known as the "statement of regulatory principles and intent" (SORPI), which essentially means that it gets a bye ball when it comes to enforcement in a number of instances. That is not right. It is not lawful, and it is not fair to farmers. It has been sitting with the Executive for months. Sinn Féin is happy to progress it. All I ask is this: can we not just progress that at tomorrow's meeting and ensure that everyone is put on a fair footing? I have set out the work that has been done on the nutrients action programme. I thank the stakeholder group for its work on that. I hope to meet it soon so that we can finalise the way forward.
261 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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