Member's statement: Water Sports: Water Quality
Member's statement by Mr Andrew McMurray on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew McMurray
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 31 March 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Water Sports: Water Quality
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4871517
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I rise to shine a spotlight on water sports and their reliance on clean water. Water sports have always been popular, but interest and participation took off over the COVID pandemic. I understand that, not just as a participant but as someone who used to work as an instructor and who did a lot to try to encourage people on to our waterways. Over 300,000 people participate in some form of water sport on our lakes, rivers and seas, and six of our seven medals at the 2024 Olympics came in water sports. The many benefits of water sports are well understood, but the impact that water quality is having on those sports may be less well known. We may know a lot about the environmental and economic impacts, but the societal impacts of our poor water quality are perhaps slightly less amplified. Lakes, rivers and seas do for water sports what pitches, halls and courts do for our traditional sports. They are absolutely essential playgrounds for water sports, but they are not reliably available in the way that other sports facilities are. Some of the disruption is inevitable, but, increasingly, man-made pollution is curtailing participation in water sports. NI Water has almost 2,500 storm overflows, which spill 20 million tons of untreated sewage and waste water into our waterways every year. Four of every 10 overflows are classified as "unsatisfactory", which means that they discharge much more frequently than they should. As a result of those discharges and other sources of pollution, none of our rivers or lakes has "good" overall water quality. For water sports, that means that, more and more often, events are cancelled, postponed or moved and, in some cases, participants become ill. Angling, triathlon, paddling, canoeing, open-water swimming, sailing, windsurfing and rowing are among the sports that have reported those negative effects. I am pleased to be able to sponsor an event by the Clean Water Sports Alliance this Wednesday, and I encourage Members to come and hear about the impact that pollution is having on sports across Northern Ireland. In conclusion, I will paraphrase what I have said here before: as Ratty said to Mole, there's nothing quite so much fun as messing about on the water.
373 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.72).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.72 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.72 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.28 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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