Debate contribution: Lough Neagh Rescue Plan

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 13 February 2024.

MLA: Mr Philip McGuigan
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 13 February 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Lough Neagh Rescue Plan
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4206338

Text

I beg to move
I begin by welcoming the Minister to the debate. I congratulate Minister Muir on his appointment as the new AERA Minister — not just on taking up that role but in creating his own bit of positive history. A memory from four years ago came up on my Facebook feed of our inaugural run together at Stormont in the MLA running group. The group lasted for maybe one run. It is interesting to note that, in the intervening four years, the Minister has carved out a very successful political career and is now a Minister, and I have become an accomplished cyclist.
Two weeks ago, the world's media were in the North to cover a good, positive news story about the resumption of the Executive and the Assembly, not to mention the historic nature of Michelle O'Neill becoming the North's First Minister. However, we are all aware of the topic under discussion and that, last summer, the same media — local and from further afield — were attracted to a much less positive story in the North: the stark reality of the ecological disaster playing out in front of our eyes, with the toxic bloom of blue-green algae on Lough Neagh. I am sure that the Minister and his ministerial colleagues will have entered their Departments with overflowing in trays. However, work to save Lough Neagh and repair the damage to its ecology and environment, and that of its tributaries and surrounding land, must be a top priority for the Executive in the time ahead. We need to see decisive action. The public want to see decisive action. As our motion states, Lough Neagh, the largest fresh water lough in Ireland, is vital to our environment, ecology and public health, as it supplies 40% of the North's drinking water. It plays an important role in local tourism, it is vital for the local fishing industry and it is important to leisure activities, especially for the local communities that surround the lough. What are we asking for in the motion? When this ecological catastrophe was playing out in front of our eyes last summer, we did not have an Assembly or an Executive and, therefore, we did not have Ministers to take decisions. Civil servants were doing their best but were constrained in the decisions that they could take. We are obviously in a different scenario now. We want to see Executive agreement on the formation of a cross-departmental structure to deal with the crisis in Lough Neagh in the short, medium and long term. The issues affecting the lough are cross-cutting: some Iie in DAERA, some in DFI, some in the Department for Communities and some in other Departments. Obviously, NI Water, the NI Environment Agency and some councils will need to be represented, as will NGOs, local community groups, fishermen, the Lough Neagh Partnership and other stakeholders, as stated in the Alliance Party amendment, which we will support. Despite the cross-departmental nature of the structure, we believe that one Executive Minister needs to be responsible and, therefore, accountable for its work. With public health, as well as economic and environmental sustainability, now major concerns with regard to the lough, we cannot afford to be unclear when it comes to responsibility and accountability.
Whatever the final model agreed, I hope, by the Executive, that cross-departmental body must provide greater coordination and focus on dealing with pollution, climate change, invasive zebra mussels and the flow of phosphorus and nitrogen into our rivers and loughs from agricultural sources, septic tanks and waste water. Solving and dealing with those issues and others requires an agreed management plan and strategy for the lough so that it can be managed, protected and promoted. We want to see an agreed management plan and structure put in place with the help of key stakeholders and those who surround Lough Neagh.
The issue of resources is rightly a key focus of the new Executive. We ask that the Executive ensure that a rescue package and plan for Lough Neagh is properly resourced by both a financial recovery package and the necessary personnel to take the agreed actions forward in the Departments. While it is not contained in the motion, Sinn Féin's long-held position is that Lough Neagh must be brought into public ownership. We would like to see consensus in the Executive on beginning to explore options to bring the lough into public ownership as soon as possible. I think that there would be massive public support and agreement for that throughout the North. We can no longer be expected to own the problems of the lough but not the lough itself.

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

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