Micheál Martin: Lough Neagh disaster should incentivise Northern parties to get back to work

 A mallard duck swims through the sludge of green algae at Kinnego Marina on Lough Neagh.

The deterioration of Ireland’s largest lake and the source of 40% of the North’s water should be yet another incentive for its paralysed political government to get back to work, according to Micheál Martin.

The Tánaiste was replying to a parliamentary question from Cork East TD Séan Sherlock about Lough Neagh, which has become an ecological and environmental disaster that experts say could take decades to reverse.

Outbreaks of toxic blue-green algae have begun to strangle life in the lake since May. The resulting cyanobacteria growths, exacerbated by agricultural runoff, have contributed to animal and human illness and a worrying loss of biodiversity in the region.

Mr Sherlock asked the Foreign Affairs Minister if the Republic has offered resources to assist the North in alleviating the problem.

Mr Martin replied that the Government “is willing and ready to cooperate on this issue on a cross-border basis” with a restored executive in the North “as soon as possible”.

“The serious and deeply regrettable environmental damage to the lough and its surroundings underlines the need for continued vigilance regarding the health of our inland waters across all parts of the island,” Mr Martin said.

The ongoing situation around Lough Neagh “re-emphasises the need for a functional Northern Ireland Executive that can deal with this issue and with other ongoing issues of deep public concern in the North”, he added.

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Mr Sherlock said everyone on the island has an interest in the cleanup of Lough Neagh.

“There seems to me to be a clear willingness on the government in the south to play its part. It’s a shame to see so many of our Island’s waterways and lakes not thriving for want of adherence to rules and regulations and for the want of better resources to police human activity,” he said.

The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) pulled out of powersharing in February 2022 over post-Brexit trading rules, leaving civil servants to try and run the show alone. Major financial inducements have been dangled by Westminster in a bid to get the powersharing executive back up and running.