Muir ‘continuing to engage’ over NI’s first environment strategy

A Stormont minister has said he is continuing to engage with Executive colleagues over the delay in adopting Northern Ireland’s first environment strategy.

Environment Minister Andrew Muir said his department is facing legal challenges over the failure to approve the Environmental Improvement Plan.

Mr Muir also provided MLAs with an update on his action plan to deal with the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh at ministerial question time on Monday.

The UK’s environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, is examining the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) over the failure to approve the plan.

Providing an update to the Assembly, Mr Muir said the Environmental Improvement Plan would become Northern Ireland’s first environment strategy.

He added: “There was a legal obligation for that to be adopted of July of last year.

“Upon taking office in February I brought that to the Executive in March, and I will continue to engage with the Executive colleagues to secure the adoption of that.

“Subsequent to me bringing the paper in March, the office of Environmental Protection has commenced an investigation as a result of the failure to adopt the environmental improvement plan.

“There are also legal challenges which have been lodged with my department around that.”

Mr Muir also updated MLAs on his plan for Lough Neagh, stating that attention had turned to implementing the actions.

Noxious blooms of blue-green algae covered large parts of the lough last summer and also affected other waterways and beaches in the region.

The algae returned this summer.

The UK and Ireland’s largest freshwater lake provides more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water and supports Europe’s largest commercial eel fishery.

It also drains around 40% of Northern Ireland’s land, of which three-quarters is agricultural.

Mr Muir said: “Good progress has been made on a number of actions, including for example the development of a Lough Neagh science platform, the launch of two small business research initiatives and the implementation of the inter-agency blue green algae monitoring protocol.

“While the action plan offers a comprehensive approach it acknowledges that achieving substantial recovery will take many years through the complex nature of the issues at Lough Neagh.

“There is a significant amount of work to do alongside our stakeholders, which will take both time and resources.

“I am firmly committed to ensuring the implementation of the action plan as quickly as possible.”

SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone asked what the projected overall cost of the action plan was, and how much funding had been secured to date.

Mr Muir said he was working with officials to establish the cost.

He said: “There are a significant range of actions which need to be taken; you have got the investment required in wastewater infrastructure, that is a significant investment needed, but also the interventions around agriculture.

“What I have done in this year is reallocated resources within my department towards Lough Neagh and the interventions that are required.

“The cost of repairing and remediating the damage in Lough Neagh is way in excess of what it would have been if this situation hadn’t been allowed to develop in the first place.”

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields is believed to be a major contributory factor in the blue-green algae blooms.

The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate, stimulating more algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor cited.