Debate contribution: Independent Environmental Protection Agency

Debate contribution by Mr Tom Buchanan on 10 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Tom Buchanan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

10 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Independent Environmental Protection Agency

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5437147

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I note from the wording of the motion that the DUP remains a thorn in the Alliance Party's side as we continue to hold its Agriculture Minister to account by not allowing him to pursue his ideology, run rampant with the establishment of an independent environmental protection agency and add a further bureaucratic burden to an already overloaded, bureaucratic Department. Where have the days gone of cutting bureaucracy and red tape rather than adding to it? Unfortunately, those days seem to be long gone. Amidst the Alliance Party's hypocrisy, I note from its motion that it decries the voice of what it describes as:

"one party which represents a minority in the Assembly as a whole".

Who does the Alliance Party think that it is to propose that my party's views are to be ignored and trampled underfoot to allow it to pursue its pet projects and advance Minister Muir's single-track green agenda irrespective of the cost? It is time that the Minister took off the blinkers, took a good look at the environmental protection measures that we already have in place and provided them with the support and teeth that they need to deliver results in an effective and efficient manner. We already have the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the Office for Environmental Protection and other bodies, such as Shared Environmental Services (SES), which were set up to protect and safeguard our natural environment and enforce regulations, as and when required, while holding the Department to account.

Yet it appears that the Minister is not satisfied with those bodies and wants to add to the environmental bureaucracy, but he has provided no costing as to how much the independent environmental protection agency would cost or where the money would come from to fund it. Further to that, no clarity has been provided as to what the agency would do that the other bodies are not already doing. The reality is that, while we are not short on oversight, results are abysmal, and it is not another quango or more committees that we need, but tangible results. Yet that is what the Minister has failed to deliver on. When challenged about the poor delivery from the NIEA, which is causing huge problems for farmers who are endeavouring to upgrade their farm buildings to comply with environmental regulations but are being hampered from doing so, what response do we get from the Minister? He says, "It is someone else's problem." A planning problem, perhaps. Blame the planners. Or he says, "We are putting mechanisms in place to address the issue." It is a bureaucratic problem. He continually passes the buck, and little is being delivered.

Thank you. That is a very fair assessment of what we believe the Minister is doing. If the Minister is serious about the environment — if he wants to be known as the Minister who led on environmental issues, rather than as the pass-the-buck Minister — he needs to man up to his responsibilities and begin with fixing the system already under his control by properly resourcing the NIEA and empowering it to act in a much more effective and efficient manner. Minister, you can no longer hide behind the environmental structures that you have responsibility for but that are failing to deliver. You have been long enough in post now to have had the outstanding issues in the NIEA resolved. How are you going to find the resources for a new independent environmental protection agency when you cannot find them for the NIEA? I further note from the motion the phrase "enhance environmental accountability and safeguards". Perhaps the Minister can clarify whether that is not what the NIEA and the OEP are already supposed to be doing, albeit at a snail's pace. Minister, how can you be trusted with another environmental agency quango when you cannot even fix what is currently under your control? We do not support the motion.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:13 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification