Cathal Mullan

Leon Brooks accuses the department of failing to publish an environmental improvement plan (EIP) due since July 2023 and failing to take meaningful enforcement action against those polluting Lough Neagh and the rivers feeding it amid an algal bloom crisis.

The first pre-action protocol letter, issued on Friday 30 August 2024, raises the statutory obligation under the Environment Act 2021 for DAERA to prepare an EIP setting out the plans the Northern Ireland Executive intends to take to improve the natural environment.

The statutory obligation to produce the EIP arising from the 2021 Act came into force on 25 July 2023, but remains outstanding.

In the second pre-action protocol letter, issued yesterday, Mr Brooks alleges that Stormont has failed to use the enforcement methods currently available to take meaningful action against those who are polluting Lough Neagh and the feeder rivers.

The 14-page letter sets out the enforcement mechanisms which are available, provides the statistics on the low level of enforcement measures used to date and notes the Executive’s silence on the issue of changes to the cap on subsidy reduction for farmers found responsible for pollution.

Mr Brooks has requested responses to both letters from the minister within 21 days. Subject to the minister’s response, he will then consider the merits of court action.

Cathal Mullan, trainee lawyer in the environmental law department at Harte Coyle Collins, Solicitors & Advocates, said: “If the past is a good predictor of the future, then Stormont’s commitment to tackling the ecological crisis at Lough Neagh is seriously in question.

“Almost 25 years ago, professor of environmental law Sharon Turner stated in an academic article that ‘continued tolerance of comparatively lax regulation will also ensure that Northern Ireland rapidly emerges as a pollution haven’. Professor Turner’s warning is now a reality.

“The ecological crisis at Lough Neagh and our government’s failure to regulate those polluting our waterways, has left our client no option but to issue pre-action correspondence to DAERA challenging its failure to effectively investigate and enforce the laws designed to protect Lough Neagh.”

Mr Brooks has called on DAERA and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to “take their share of the responsibility in allowing Northern Ireland to be known as the dirty corner of Europe through decades of light touch regulation and accept that business-as-usual just won’t cut it any more”.

Mr Brooks is represented by the environmental law team at Harte Coyle Collins of Nichola Harte, Patricia Coyle, Cathal Mullan, Meadbh O Dowd, and counsel Karen Quinlivan KC and Lara Smyth BL.