Lough Neagh action plan outlined by Stormont's Environment Minister Andrew Muir
Stormont's environment minister has warned there are no quick fixes for the environment crisis in Lough Neagh saying it is vital to start now on tackling it.
Andrew Muir made the comments while providing an update on the Lough Neagh Report and Action Plan, as well as outlining a number of measures to be undertaken by his department.
In 2023, the UK’s largest body of fresh water turned green due to unprecedented levels of blue-green algae.
It resulted in bathing bans in some areas.
The lough supplies 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water and sustains a major eel-fishing industry.
Mr Muir told MLAs on Tuesday that “issues and challenges at Lough Neagh will not be resolved overnight, nor will they be resolved by my department alone”.
“They need a strategic, evidence based and across-government approach,” he added.
“It’s a long term project.”
Mr Muir said he brought the Lough Neagh Report and Action Plan to the Executive a number of weeks ago.
It contains 37 actions - some of which the minister explained would require Executive approval as they “cut across departments”.
Of those, 20 have been given the go-ahead by the agriculture minister as they fall within his department’s remit.
The minister has allocated £6million toward the actions. Around £2.8m of that money is to go towards resource, including hiring additional staff "with firm force on enforcement", while £3.2m is for capital investment.
The actions contained within the draft report fall into four categories:
Education
Incentive
Regulation
Enforcement
In terms of ownership of Lough Neagh, Andrew Muir told MLAs that he has sought "further meetings" with the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The ownership has been in the Earl of Shaftesbury's estate since the 1800s. The Earl recently said he ”would like” to transfer it to a charity or community trust model.
Mr Muir said his personal preference "is for community ownership".
Marc Mac Seáin from Save the Lough told UTV that he welcomed the announcement but would like to see further action taken.
"We do welcome actions going ahead on some of the measures to take a stab at some of the issues at Lough Neagh,” he said.
"Personally from taking a look through those I wouldn't think they go far enough.
"I understand part of that is coming down to gridlock in the government.
"This is only the initial stages it seems to me of action or talk of action going from Stormont out to deal with it."
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