Debate contribution: Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew McMurray on 16 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Andrew McMurray

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

16 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5111349

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am OK for time, I think, Mr Deputy Speaker. I do not want to be chastised for straying too far from the subject of the debate, but I want to make a few brief remarks. I associate myself with the remarks directed to Mrs Erskine. While her presence on the Committee and in the Chamber will be missed, we wish her all the best. Tóg go bog é.

See you when you get back. I welcome the new Chair, Mr Martin, to his role. Mr McNulty is not here. It would have been good if Mr McNulty and Mr Martin had introduced themselves to the Committee, but they covered that in the debate on road maintenance last night, so that is all good. I am glad that Mr Boylan got in to speak before me; otherwise, some of the old hands on the Committee might have taken umbrage at those who have served least time getting in ahead of them, so it is good to see a bit of balance restored. Anyway, on to the matter in hand. I welcome the Second Stage of the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill, and I support its principles and intent. This important legislation will, hopefully, strengthen resilience in the face of heavy rain and drought, both of which we see more of these days as a result of climate change. We are also told that it will help reduce pollution in watercourses and facilitate more environmentally friendly solutions in managing water resources. Those are all important goals that the Alliance Party has championed for a long time, so we naturally welcome the fact that the Minister has presented the Bill, and we would like to see it progress. I support the proposal to expand temporary hosepipe bans to allow restrictions on a wider range of non-essential uses in times of drought. At the moment, watering gardens and washing cars are the only activities that can be restricted. Hosepipe bans have not often been necessary here, thankfully, but climate change is changing that, as we see more extreme weather events, wet and dry. Only last week, the Republic of Ireland extended hosepipe bans in parts of Counties Meath, Westmeath and Donegal that are set to remain in place until October. It is sobering to think that droughts are becoming an issue on the island of Ireland, even in the autumn. We are right to prepare for that. The Bill includes powers to ban some additional non-essential uses of water, such as filling or maintaining domestic pools. We need to keep it in mind that the aim of a hosepipe ban is to ensure that the supply of drinking water to the public is not put at risk. Wasteful use of water is hard to justify in times of drought, so I welcome that aspect of the Bill. I also welcome the proposal to put the homeowner flood protection grant scheme on a statutory footing. The pilot in my constituency has been important, especially in Newcastle, where domestic properties in the Marguerite and Donard Park areas have been repeatedly flooded. It is accepted that the pilot has had its imperfections: delivery has been slow at times, and there have been issues with eligibility requirements and so on. The Minister has made improvements in the past year that have been welcomed on the ground. Irrespective of its imperfections, it has been an important pilot scheme, and I am glad that the Bill will, in principle, allow it to continue. Flooding can also have a severe impact on our local economies. We have seen that in Downpatrick, where Market Street was severely hit by the 2023 flood. Not all businesses have been able to recover from that event, even with the financial support offered by the Minister for the Economy, which shows how devastating flooding incidents can be. I know that DFI is planning bigger flood alleviation measures in the town. Putting those in place will take years, and there are worries that they might never materialise. I am concerned that local businesses will be unable to protect themselves from flooding in the meantime or to recover if they are hit again. A scheme like the homeowner flood protection grant but for commercial premises would be hugely welcome in Downpatrick. I urge the Minister to consider including in the Bill a power to make similar grants to protect commercial properties. Including such a power would not oblige her to introduce such a scheme but would at least give her the ability to do so. I will comment on the sustainable drainage system (SuDS) element of the Bill, which proposes to allow the Department to issue guidance on the design, maintenance and adoption of sustainable drainage systems. We will still be a long way from the guidance being in place, but the proposed powers will help us to get there. I had the opportunity to attend a DFI event on SuDS some weeks ago where I learned a lot about the benefits as well as the pitfalls. It opened my eyes to the complexity of the matter, and it is important that the guidance be put in place. There can be no doubt for me that SuDS must form an important part of managing water in the years to come. There is no silver bullet, but SuDS can certainly make an important contribution to solving many serious issues that we face, from flooding to sewer capacity and thus water pollution and its effects on places such as Lough Neagh. I very much welcome and support that aspect of the Bill as well. That said, we face a severe waste water crisis, and the legislation will largely impact on new developments. It will mitigate the extent to which new developments make things worse, but it will not make much of a difference to the enormous problem that is already there. We have heard a lot about the Minister's three-pronged approach, of which the Bill is an important part. The second part is the consultation on developer contributions. We do not yet know the outcome of that, but, having spoken to many stakeholders over the past few years, I remain to be convinced that developer contributions will bring about significant improvements. Finally, there is the commitment to working with Executive colleagues to find more money where, frankly, there is not much going spare. I remain very concerned about the Minister's overall approach to addressing the waste water crisis. Her party voted to do whatever it takes to save Lough Neagh, so I call on the Minister to deliver on that commitment and to face the fact that the way in which Northern Ireland Water is currently financed is not working. There are other aspects to the Bill, such as the powers for NI Water to adopt pre-1973 drainage infrastructure, to fix drainage misconnections on private land and recover the cost from the landowner, and to register adoption agreements in the Statutory Charges Register. I have yet to develop a detailed understanding of those issues, so I look forward to scrutinising them at Committee Stage. From what we have heard and researched about them so far, they appear to be sensible. The Alliance Party was broadly supportive of those and other aspects of the Bill at the time of the consultation, and I have no immediate objections at this stage. I thank the Minister for introducing the Bill, which will put in place the conditions to allow us to tackle several important issues in the future. Will the legislation be enough? No. We still need to do the heavy lifting to tackle the issues, and that includes making some difficult decisions. The Bill will, however, open a number of doors. I wholeheartedly support its principles.

1,297 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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