Debate contribution: Lough Neagh Rescue Plan
Debate contribution by Lord Elliott on .
- MLA
- Lord Elliott
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 13 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Lough Neagh Rescue Plan
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4206421
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the opportunity to debate this important matter today, and I thank the Members who tabled the motion. Lough Neagh, like many other natural environments in Northern Ireland, is vital to the well-being of the area and, indeed, the country. The motion calls for:
"a cross-departmental body to be set up to address the immediate issues facing Lough Neagh".
That is something that the Ulster Unionist Party called for over five months ago. The motion goes on to call on the Executive:
"to put in place a new management structure and plan to include input from communities and organisations with an interest in the welfare of the lough".
I accept that there are too many organisations that work in isolation. They work in their own silos but do not work collectively, and that is one of the difficulties that we have. The Member for Mid Ulster, Ms Dillon, mentioned Waterways Ireland. I had a meeting with the chief executive of Waterways Ireland specifically about Lough Neagh. He said, "I cannot do anything about it. It does not come under my remit at all. I have no responsibility for its management". I am not sure why Waterways Ireland, which is responsible for inland waterways throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, does not have some responsibility, but that is a matter for another day. I am curious about the motion and the amendment. I thought that the motion covered the areas that the amendment goes into, so I was a bit surprised by the amendment, simply because I was hoping that we would all have flocked around the motion. I am not sure what extra the amendment does, except that it seems to indicate to me that other bodies, as well as cross-departmental organisations, are allowed into the main structure and decision-making. I feel that that would be somewhat difficult to manage. I accept the premise of it, but I feel that it would be much more difficult to get decisions and manage.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank Mr Blair for the clarification. However, I do think that the way that the amendment is worded would allow a whole range of organisations to be subject to and involved in that decision-making process. To be honest, I would not look forward to Friends of the Earth, the Ulster Farmers’ Union and all those organisations getting into a decision-making body, but, if it is something less than that that Mr Blair is explaining, I am willing and happy to accept that. As others have pointed out, of course, the finger of blame always points towards the farmers, although I do appreciate that Ms Mulholland indicated that she did not single out any group. I appreciate and acknowledge that. We are on a pathway to net zero, and I would not like to think that this will be used as some sort of battering ram against the farming community. We need to meet those targets, as challenging as they are, as much as I oppose some of those targets and as much as the Climate Change Committee in the UK did not support them either. It had a different target, but we have to accept that that is where we are. I can tell you that slaughtering half of the livestock and farm animals in Northern Ireland will not resolve the issue for Northern Ireland and will not help to meet the targets. I want to look at one other area outside the farming community, and that is water usage in Northern Ireland. Five hundred and sixty million litres of good-quality drinking water is supplied to households and organisations every day in Northern Ireland, all of which goes through five treatment systems, some of which are chemical treatment systems. You can imagine the amount of chemicals being used. Three hundred and thirty million litres of waste water a day is collected from households and organisations that are connected to the Northern Ireland sewerage system and transferred to works, where it is again treated and disposed of. The amount of treatment carried out by NI Water surely must contribute significantly. I heard the figures raised by Mr Blair earlier. That does not take into consideration the number of septic tanks in the community. Another area that we have no control of is zebra mussels, which are in Lough Neagh just as they are in Lough Erne. They cause huge havoc and huge difficulty, and we do not seem to have any control over those. Maybe the new Minister will have a fundamental idea that we could all weigh in behind to sort out the zebra mussel problems in Northern Ireland. A number of initiatives have been suggested, but there are other initiatives to help Lough Neagh.
We need to look at areas such as anaerobic digestion and woodland buffer zones.
809 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.