Of all the issues piled up in the executive in-tray, there is no doubt that the problems afflicting Lough Neagh are among the most pressing.
Alarming images of blue-green algae have returned in recent weeks alongside advice not to bathe in affected areas.
It is an environmental catastrophe decades in the making, but one that requires immediate action if we are to secure drinking water supplies for the future and rescue one of our greatest natural assets.
It is also an issue where the levers of change are held by Stormont ministers and is therefore a test of whether this latest incarnation of devolved government can finally get its dilapidated house – or in this case, garden – in order.
It was therefore very welcome that agriculture and environment minister Andrew Muir was able to navigate a Lough Neagh action plan through the murky waters of executive business last week. Too often over the years have we seen difficult issues requiring consensus disappear into the black hole of the Executive Office.
The document opens with recognition from Mr Muir that “for too long, the balance between growing the economy and safeguarding our environment has not been right”, and that “we have ignored the catastrophic impact of pollution on our natural environment”.
It goes on to set out 37 steps to address the crisis, focussing on reducing pollutants from agriculture as well as treatment works and septic tanks.
Initial praise for securing passage of the plan – amid suggestions of DUP obstruction – has given way to concern about whether it has the bite to back up its rhetoric.
Friends of the Earth director James Orr described it as an attempt to “rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic”, while the Save Lough Neagh campaign group said it was “heavy on education, voluntary measures and talk of further consultations but very weak on actual regulation and concrete action”.
While defending that plan as a “detailed, science-led, proportionate and ambitious set of actions that will make a tangible difference to our waterways”, Mr Muir also acknowledge that delivery will require significant investment.
On that point, and the wider issue of agricultural policy, it is extremely frustrating there was no joint statement by ministers setting out their commitment to the plan, let alone a press conference giving an opportunity to ask questions.
Indeed, the restoration of the executive has seen a depressing return to the pattern of meetings being held with little or no public notice and precious little information about the outcome afterwards. And this just weeks after serious criticism of the conduct of government was again aired in the Covid inquiry.
The problems and solutions to the Lough Neagh crisis need to be fully owned by Stormont if we are to have confidence that this government is genuinely intent on charting a new course.
