Debate contribution: Lough Neagh Rescue Plan

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on 13 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Andrew Muir

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

13 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Lough Neagh Rescue Plan

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4206460

Read the official Assembly record

Text

May I start by thanking the Members for bringing the issue to the Floor for discussion? It is good to be back in a functioning Assembly with the Executive restored. It is also good to see the good will being shown towards each other and the consensus emerging in relation to the issue. I also thank Members for their kind comments on my appointment. As Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, it is my strong desire to work with Members, with the sectors that come under my Department's remit and with wider society, because that is the only way in which we will achieve solutions to the challenges of Lough Neagh and the many other challenges that we face across Northern Ireland. As I highlighted to the Executive last week at their first meeting, it is encouraging to see agreement on the need for collective action, not just in government but through working with users, local residents and stakeholder organisations to bring long-term solutions to the issue of Lough Neagh and water quality in general. Such is the importance that I place on it that I made it a priority to visit Lough Neagh last week in my first few days as Minister. During the visit, I met stakeholders in the Lough Neagh Partnership to hear at first hand about the extent of the issue. That was just the beginning of my engagement with stakeholders; I intend to seek views regularly and to work together to take forward evidence-based solutions to tackle blue-green algae and secure long-term water quality improvements. Last week, I made a specific commitment to go back to Lough Neagh regularly, at least quarterly, and it is important that I fulfil that. On the opening remarks made by the motion's proposer, Philip McGuigan, on our MLA running club, which did not last too long, I can confirm to him and other Members that, last night, I entered the Lap the Lough cycling sportive, which is an 89-mile cycle ride around Lough Neagh. I hope that he will join me for it. He will probably beat me; I put that out now. Lough Neagh is a key part of our community and a real asset for Northern Ireland, and I look forward to enjoying all 89 miles in August. From the outset, I wish to reassure Members and make it clear that I will not shy away from my responsibilities as Minister to do the work that needs to be done to tackle the issues. We all recognise that it will take significant time, investment, commitment and working in partnership to make the improvements that are needed, but we all wish to see those improvements effected. The scale of the problem should not prevent us from taking action now. We need to move from debating such motions to taking action. As Minister, I am willing and ready to lead, to drive action and to coordinate. The responsibility is on us all, however — in the Chamber and in the Executive — to turn the situation around. There is a unity of purpose here. Let us go forward with that and grasp the issues ahead. Our natural environment is under significant pressure, and most indicators are moving in the wrong direction. Urgent collaborative action and investment are needed to tackle what the public increasingly see as a joint climate and biodiversity crisis. The blue-green algae issue, manifested most notably in Lough Neagh but also in other water bodies across Northern Ireland, cannot be seen in isolation from the natural environment more generally. We cannot tackle its problems in isolation.

No problem.

I am. I am aware that it is not just an issue in Lough Neagh. It speaks to what I have already outlined: it is a wider issue that we all need to face together. For the reasons that I have outlined, in the next few weeks, I will bring to the Executive a new environment strategy that I will propose to be adopted as Northern Ireland's first environmental improvement plan. It will take a strategic approach to all the issues facing our environment. There is a mountain of issues for me to address on taking office, many of which have built up over two years of having no Executive. Not having an Executive has not come without consequences. I am determined to do the work to turn the problem around, but we can never let that situation happen again. Like my officials, I recognise the importance of Lough Neagh to our environment, our ecology and our drinking water supply. I also recognise its wider importance to tourism, fishing and leisure activities in communities not just surrounding the lough but across Northern Ireland. I am also aware of the wider debate on the ownership of Lough Neagh and of Members' contributions today. I welcome the news that the Lough Neagh Partnership has secured funding to explore future management and ownership of the lough, and I look forward to seeing the publication of that research. I also welcome the approach that has been made to me by Lord Shaftesbury, and I look forward to meeting him in a frank and open manner in the weeks ahead. As Members will, no doubt, know, Lough Neagh is the largest fresh water lake in these islands. Its catchment area is approximately 43% of the land area of Northern Ireland; indeed, the size and scale of Lough Neagh and its catchment area add to the complexity of dealing with the blue-green algae issues in the lough. You can see that illustrated when you look at the catchment area on a map; it is not just the lough. The lough supplies half of Belfast's drinking water and 40% of Northern Ireland's overall drinking water requirements. Those are significant figures in any context, and they underline the need for us to invest and turn the problem around and the importance of the lough to our environment and our economy. Lough Neagh is highly —.

I thank the Member for his intervention. I will turn to that, but we have a number of actions that are starting to emerge, and I want to bring those forward not only to the Executive and Assembly but to stakeholders. As Minister, I want to work with people. I do not want people to be surprised about that work. I want people to buy into it. I need Members to buy into it. I need the Executive to buy into it. I need the Minister of Finance, the users, the residents and the non-governmental organisations around the lough to buy into it. That is crucial. It will not be easy, but I am prepared to do the work to make it deliver. Lough Neagh is highly protected with multiple designations, each of which affords the lough and its features special protection. The area of special scientific interest (ASSI) designation lists 23 protected features, including a range of aquatic birds; shoreline habitats; breeding and wintering bird assemblages; and fresh water invertebrate and fish assemblages. That indicates just how scientifically important the lough's precious ecosystem is considered to be. With that in mind, the events of last spring, summer and autumn, when algae blooms appeared at multiple locations in the lough and its wider catchment, as well as at locations along the north coast, were devastating for all to witness. Having visited Lough Neagh in person last week, I fully understand and empathise with people not just in their distress but in their anger as those events unfolded. They unfolded at the surface of the lough, but the reality is that they had been going on below the surface. The blooms appeared at such an unprecedented level during 2023 due to four main factors: the highest water temperature ever recorded in Lough Neagh; the weather patterns experienced during the summer of 2023; warmer waters and altered weather patterns that exacerbated the frequency and intensity of the algae bloom outbreaks; and high levels of excess nutrients entering the lough, mostly from agricultural sources but also from Northern Ireland Water waste water infrastructure and, to a lesser extent, domestic waste water treatment systems. The large numbers of invasive zebra mussels that were found in the lough also increased the clarity of the water. I clarify that I am not into the blame game; I am into solving the issues here. We want to work with people to resolve the issues. There is not just one source for that. The circumstances that led to last year's algae blooms have been decades in the making, and, taken with the undeniable impact of climate change, that means that there are no quick fixes to the occurrence and probable recurrence of blue-green algae blooms at Lough Neagh. However, that should not stop us taking action. It is important that we start to work collectively to address the problem immediately. I turn to the comments from the proposer of the amendment on an independent environmental protection agency. Members will be aware that it is a long-standing commitment of the Alliance Party and me, personally, to establish an independent environmental protection agency.

We have to ask ourselves whether, if that agency had been established many years ago, we would be having this debate today.

I want to work with people to make the case for the agency. I know that I need to do that with certain sectors. As a first step, I have asked officials to commence an environmental governance review, which is particularly important as a result of our exit from the EU, to understand where we are and to move forward. I repeat that I want to work with people on this, but my strong desire is to establish an independent environmental protection agency, because we need independent oversight in order to ensure that situations such as this do not occur again.

Yes, no problem.

I thank the Member for his intervention. I am conscious of that, but the issue for me is this: do we have someone to call us out, to call me out, on that? That is why we need to do the environmental governance review. We also have the Office for Environmental Protection, and we need to review how that relates to the issue. It is about establishing something to assist us as politicians and stakeholders. In the time ahead, I look forward to meeting stakeholders, as I have been doing in the past number of days, to discuss the issues. I am conscious that Northern Ireland is not unique in having this issue. As Members may be aware, a cross-departmental water quality steering group is in the process of drafting a set of evidence-based recommendations to tackle blue-green algae in Lough Neagh and secure longer-term improvements in water quality. Patsy McGlone referred to that. The recommendations in the report are underpinned by scientific evidence and data, and it is important that we follow that. DAERA also established an independent science advisory group. Membership of the group has been drawn initially from the scientific expertise of the devolved Administrations, with a remit to provide an advisory, independent scrutiny role and to report. I expect to receive the report and recommendations for action from officials imminently; we are talking about weeks, not months. Members will no doubt be aware that key recommendations will target the high nutrient levels that emanate from three main sources. We have talked about those. There is research on how those contribute overall in Northern Ireland. Research specific to Lough Neagh is also being undertaken by AFBI, and I hope to be able to publish that in the time ahead. While, in the longer term, we need to tackle the ultimate causes of the algae blooms, we need to ensure that they do not reoccur this year and in subsequent years. As you can imagine, given the huge media interest in Lough Neagh in 2023, numerous individuals and companies have contacted my Department with potential technical solutions, and we are exploring those. Some may be runners; some may not. I confirm that my intention is to establish an inter-agency water body to engage with all interested public and stakeholder bodies on the improvement of water quality as part of the Lough Neagh report. My officials recently held preliminary discussions with the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, and we are also exploring how we can work in partnership with it. Alongside that work, an inter-agency monitoring group — under the leadership of DAERA and involving NIEA, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, AFBI, the Public Health Agency, the Food Standards Agency and NI Water — is developing a protocol for the future monitoring and management of blooms. I understand that Northern Ireland Water has instigated a dedicated incident management team on how to respond. I welcome today's motion and the calls for the establishment of a cross-departmental body that includes non-governmental organisations, to address blue-green algae and the water quality issues that face Lough Neagh. I believe that we can build effectively on examples such as the Forever Mournes partnership and map a course forward. We all share the same aim to preserve and restore the ecological integrity of Lough Neagh in a sustainable, collaborative and timely manner, recognising that we are embarking upon a long-term process. I thank Members for proposing the motion and for the interesting and challenging discussion that the debate has stimulated. I look forward to working with Members on this vital topic in the months and years ahead.

2,251 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:36 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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