Green Party Councillor, Brian Smyth, has described the newly approved Lough Neagh Action Plan from the Stormont Executive as grim reading for the future welfare of the Lough.

Mr Smyth has criticised the action plan as a "monumental failure" by the Executive and the Alliance Party Minister. He remarked: "It was the Alliance Party who courted and told Green voters over the past few years they could be trusted with the environment. They have fallen at the first hurdle."

In a statement Councillor Smyth said: "The first thing that stands out is that there is no mention of the Going for Growth Strategy, which has contributed massively to the increase in levels of pollution that have entered Lough Neagh in the past decade. 62% of the phosphorus pollution in Lough Neagh comes directly from agricultural discharge.

"The Stormont Executive has encouraged industrial agriculture to ramp up levels of pollution to unsustainable and dangerous levels, which are now poisoning our land, rivers, and air. Despite Green Party warnings on the Going for Growth strategy, the entire Stormont Executive championed this at the behest of big agri-food. There needs to be an immediate reversal of the Going for Growth Strategy towards a model of regenerative farming.

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"The Action plan is very short on tangible actions, full of weak, vague government language, designed to confuse the public into thinking that Stormont is delivering on the long-term recovery of the Lough. The plan speaks mainly around voluntary measures, education, ‘raising awareness’, ‘consultation’ and training, but less on urgent need for regulation and greater enforcement of existing regulations and laws. Persistent polluters don’t need educated; they need the full force of the law for their continued illegal actions.

“Northern Ireland is crying out for an Independent Environmental Protection Agency to hold polluters to account. Again, this has been left out of this supposed Action Plan.

"There urgently needs to be a moratorium on slurry spreading to give the Lough breathing space, instead the action plan uses language such as 'Consult on restricting the use of chemical fertilisers containing phosphorus on grassland', when the science is clear that we need to massively reduce phosphorous use on the land and leaching into waterways. The minister previously stated that 'The Action Plan is not a wish list - it is a detailed, science-led, proportionate, and ambitious set of actions.' If that is the case, then there is little to be seen of ambition and more of kicking the can down the road.

"Finally, there is also no commitment by Stormont to acquire the bed of Lough Neagh from the Earl of Shaftsbury and moving towards community ownership, with a Rights of Nature model at the centre of it."