Debate contribution: Lough Neagh

Debate contribution by Mr Eóin Tennyson on 9 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Eóin Tennyson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Lough Neagh

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5086695

Read the official Assembly record

Text

By this stage, we all know that Lough Neagh is dying in plain sight. For the third summer in a row, toxic blue-green algae has enveloped its waters. That putrid green sludge has suffocated wildlife and upended key parts of our rural economy. However, the ecological crisis in Lough Neagh is not seasonal; its roots are in decades of inertia and neglect in the Assembly. We know the causes: nutrient run-off from agriculture, and sewage and septic tanks. We know the consequences in terms of biodiversity loss, livelihoods being upended and real public health risks. Crucially, we also know the solutions. Those solutions, however, require tough decisions and real political leadership, both of which have been in short supply in the Chamber, particularly from the DUP and Sinn Féin, since the Assembly returned over a year ago. Despite repeated promises and commitments and talk of the need for collective action on Lough Neagh, time and again we have seen responsible environmental stewardship sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, with key reforms being resisted because they would upset powerful interests. When the Minister brought regulations to remove the cap on cross-compliance penalties for repeat polluters, the DUP and Sinn Féin opposed them. When the nutrients action plan went out to public consultation, both parties supported a motion advocating for it to be scrapped. Such posturing stretches credulity to its elastic limit. I note that Sinn Féin's environment spokesperson welcomed the fact that a stakeholder group has now been set up. I hope that that amounts to a turning of the page and that there can be a more collective effort going forward. However, that is not what the Assembly voted for. It voted to outright scrap those proposals, and the Minister will not adhere to that request. Mr Kearney said that proposals demand consensus for a situation of this gravity, and I do not disagree with him, but consensus was reached in the Lough Neagh action plan that was agreed at the Executive. That made clear that a nutrients action plan would have to be taken forward. He said that this matter is above party politics, and that is a convenient defence to hide behind when you have aligned yourself with the DUP to block key environmental action despite having promised your electorate that you would clean up the crisis in Lough Neagh. I ask Sinn Féin Members in particular to reflect on that. The people of Northern Ireland are not fools. They know that you cannot deal with agricultural run-off without a robust NAP, that you cannot tackle pollution without hiking fines on repeat polluters and that you cannot clean up Lough Neagh with photo opportunities and warm words. Despite the lack of support that we have seen in the Chamber, some progress has nevertheless been made. Northern Ireland's first environment strategy has been agreed, with a focus on improving land, air and water quality. The Lough Neagh action plan is now in place, and a number of key actions are moving forward or have been completed, including the small business research initiative and the new task force, which has conducted over 300 site investigations already. We now have a crucial opportunity to step forward collectively and go further. We often hear the criticism, and we heard it again in the debate, that the focus is too often on agriculture and not on NI Water, and I agree that there is an inherent unfairness in the fact that NI Water gets a bye ball for pollution incidents. However, the Minister has stated multiple times that he wishes to proceed to scrap the SORPI arrangements to ensure that that is no longer the case so that NI Water can face the same fines and penalties as other polluters. We cannot deny the fact, however, that 62% of the nutrient pollution that is causing the blue-green algae blooms in Lough Neagh comes from agriculture, so we have to work with agriculture to set a more sustainable course. We also need to see action from the Infrastructure Minister to bring forward an expert-led review of NI Water, with a view to finally stopping waste water sewage pollution. Support is also required to hike fines and penalties further and to introduce the long-overdue environmental protection agency, which the Assembly has dithered on in previous mandates. Those are not niche environmental issues but are matters of social justice. The communities who live around the lough deserve clean water, sustainable livelihoods and a Government who do not just talk but take action. I hope that, today, we will move on from this habit of passing non-binding motions and wringing our hands at the crisis in Lough Neagh and instead actually take the action that is needed to deal with the crisis.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:05 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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