Part of Ministerial Statements – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 11:15 am on 25 June 2024.
I thank the Member for his question. Air quality is important to me, and I am engaging with officials on our air quality strategy for Northern Ireland. I want to get that finalised so that we are able to make progress on it. It is one of the issues that officials have been working on, alongside water quality. Resources are a challenge for my Department, but we are working through that, and I was reading through the responses to the consultation just last night.
The NSMC meeting had a significant discussion around air quality, given that the challenges exist North and South. Air quality does not stop at the border. We need to deal with it, particularly when it comes to the actions that the South has taken on the burning of fuel. We were able to discuss those issues. I will have to work on those issues with my Communities and Economy colleagues. We have had fruitful discussions to date, and I want to make progress on those matters. We need to take action on air quality: it has a real impact on human health in Northern Ireland.