On Tuesday in Stormont, Sinn Féin once again faced the question of what to put first: Lough Neagh or the farming lobby. This time, for the first time, it chose Lough Neagh.
The question was asked by the SDLP opposition, in a motion expressing “regret at the misguided support” for a previous motion in June. In that June motion, the DUP had called on Andrew Muir, the Alliance agriculture and environment minister, to scrap his proposals to reduce water pollution, known as the Nutrients Action Plan (NAP).
Sinn Féin and the UUP backed this call, meaning three of the four executive parties ganged up on a minister in the assembly. NAP is a long-running statutory programme. Muir’s proposals, while ambitious, were a scheduled update he had put out to consultation.
The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) demanded the consultation, let alone the proposals, be scrapped – it appears the industry body expected to be “pre-consulted”. Most parties did the UFU’s bidding, as usual.
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Then summer arrived, with an algal bloom worse than ever. Lough Neagh’s eel fishery was suspended; many in the industry fear this marks its collapse. The visible decline of the lough shocked people living around it, including in several heartland Sinn Féin constituencies. The drinking water it provides to 40 per cent of Northern Ireland’s homes remains officially safe but there are noticeable changes in taste and smell.
So Sinn Féin has clearly revised its position. Its backing was enough for Tuesday’s motion to pass, despite every unionist present voting against. The SDLP is keen to portray this success as proof that “opposition matters”, to quote the party leader, Claire Hanna.
Proof is in short supply. Although opposition emerged at Stormont a decade ago, the past 18 months have been its first lengthy run of conventional operation. Matthew O’Toole, the SDLP’s assembly leader, is a former Downing Street civil servant with a distinctly Westminster approach to opposition. This has not always seemed the right fit for powersharing but the SDLP may now be finding the balance between scolding the executive and building majorities with executive parties.
Sinn Féin still attempted to deflect responsibility from farmers and itself. In the chamber and a subsequent press release, Declan Kearney, the party’s national chairman, said: “Lough Neagh is no longer a regional crisis; it is a national emergency which demands a joint political priority from this assembly and the Irish government.”
Nine per cent of the lough’s catchment is in the Republic. Nothing stops Stormont cleaning up the remainder.
“Our response requires North-South intergovernmental action, with a dedicated focus from both the Irish and British Government,” Kearney continued. Every issue related to Lough Neagh is devolved. The only thing Britain could be asked for is more money to upgrade the sewage system because Stormont will not ask the public to pay for it instead.
The SDLP may have inadvertently made consensus-building harder by creating an orange-green split on Lough Neagh, an outcome it would have preferred to avoid. Every strand of elected unionism, from the TUV to liberal independent Claire Sugden, opposed Tuesday’s motion. The DUP is large enough on its own to veto Muir at the executive. With cover from the rest of unionism it will see little reason not to do so, unless it decides it fears unionist voters over Lough Neagh more than it fears farmers.
There is no sign of this so far. The executive’s veto mechanism is defined by a ministerial code rather than legislation, so Muir could attempt to defy unionist objections with Sinn Féin’s support. That is not the punctilious minister’s style, however, and nobody would welcome the ensuing political crisis.
Farms produce 62 per cent of the pollution in Lough Neagh, much of it in breach of the law
In Tuesday’s debate, DUP and UUP representatives repeated the UFU’s familiar line against Muir’s proposals – that farmer’s are being disproportionately blamed for pollution, while leaks from sewage works and septic tanks are scarcely mentioned.
This is nonsense. Farms produce 62 per cent of the pollution in Lough Neagh, much of it in breach of the law. Upgrading the sewerage is one of the most-discussed subjects in Northern Ireland politics. But unionist parties may be unwisely defending a line while everyone else plots a retreat.
The UFU has been sounding more circumspect lately. It may have got wind of Sinn Féin’s impending change of heart. An orange-green divide does not suit its purposes – the cross-community vote for June’s motion was ideal from a lobbyist’s perspective.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP remain anxious not to upset farmers. Any sensible industry body would be seeking a compromise that could gain unionist and nationalist support. Muir’s consultation closed in July and his final proposals are still under consideration. It remains to be seen if Sinn Féin will endorse effective measures, but the party has finally moved to an extent that makes further movement possible.
