NI is ‘environmental basket-case’ and not benefitting from tougher rules, experts warn

Under the Windsor Framework the region remains subject to key EU laws on environment.

While these may be more stringent than those elsewhere in the UK, experts say it may not matter.

They warn oversight failures and the already poor state of the environment here mean Northern Ireland is unlikely to benefit.

Ciara Brennan, director of the advocacy group Environmental Justice Network Ireland told The Guardian: “It cannot be absorbed given the already grossly degraded state of the environment here. The crisis at Lough Neagh is symptomatic of how bad things are across the north.”

Algae blooms afflicting Lough Neagh made national headlines last year.

The water was saturated with cyanobacteria, causing its vast expanse to turn luminous green.

Photographs revealing the devastating destruction were published around the UK.

Campaigners said the lough’s plight is evidence of long-term insufficient scrutiny and attention on environmental matters.

James Orr, director of Friends of the Earth in Northern Ireland, said the higher standards now applicable here post-Brexit were of limited value given the region is already an environmental “basket case”.

Viviane Gravey, an expert on EU environmental policy at Queen’s University, said political difficulties are also at play.

She said the Executive’s collapse in 2022 had left the civil service struggling to fill the vacuum.

“There is all this potential for Northern Ireland to be more ambitious than Great Britain but for that you need to have civil servants capable of doing the work and an environmental agency that has teeth,” she told The Guardian.

"The civil service is under so much stress and there are so many gaps. Deadlines are being missed.”