Motion or amendment: Opposing Plans for the Nutrients Action Programme 2026-2029

Motion or amendment by Miss Michelle McIlveen on 27 May 2025.

MLA: Miss Michelle McIlveen
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 27 May 2025
Type: Motion or amendment
Business: Motion · Private Members' Motion
Heading: Opposing Plans for the Nutrients Action Programme 2026-2029
Assembly identifier: Document 440829

Read the official Assembly record Open Data source

Text

Opposing Plans for the Nutrients Action Programme 2026-2029
That this Assembly recognises the need to tackle all sources of pollution affecting water quality in Lough Neagh and in rivers throughout Northern Ireland; expresses alarm at plans to impose stricter phosphorus limits on over 3,500 local farms, mandate low emission slurry spreading equipment and require compulsory uncultivated buffer strips for those in the arable and horticulture sectors; believes such measures could devastate agriculture, reduce livestock numbers, add cost and red tape and undermine food security; stresses that any future nutrient management policy, which is focused on more sustainable agricultural practices, must be the product of genuine partnership, rather than punitive policies that risk the viability of our agri-food industry; further stresses the need to redouble efforts, and actions, to address the sources of pollution in wastewater treatment; and calls on the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to immediately withdraw the current public consultation on the Nutrients Action Programme 2026-2029 in order to provide time and space to develop a genuinely multi-sectoral and multi-agency approach that is fair and workable for all stakeholders.

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