17 June 2025

The Finance Minister has his head in the sand over his refusal to even acknowledge that there is a problem with the funding of Northern Ireland Water, Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole has said.

It comes after clear warnings from the independent Fiscal Council.

In the Assembly on Monday, the Finance Minister John O’Dowd refused to acknowledge the scale of the challenge facing NI Water – despite widespread acceptance that under-investment in wastewater is a huge contributor both to the crisis at Lough Neagh and the bousing emergency.

Mr O’Toole challenged the Minister’s attempt to deflect the question of the need for a funding plan for NI Water by asking the Opposition for its plan – when he has failed to produce his own over two different ministerial posts.

Mr O’Dowd, who has served as both Infrastructure and Finance minister since the Executive returned last February, has repeatedly declined to acknowledge that NI Water faces a funding crisis. In the 2025/26 Budget, published earlier this year, NI Water received a real-terms cut in capital funding.

Matthew O’Toole MLA said:

“John O’Dowd’s refusal to even engage with the crisis facing NI Water is shocking – it is ignoring one of the biggest challenges the North faces. The Executive already has no chance of meeting its targets for social homes and it has failed to produce any serious action for tackling the ecological breakdown at Lough Neagh. These are just two examples of why we so desperately need a plan for funding NI Water.

“But rather than produce a plan as either Finance Minister or Infrastructure Minister, John O’Dowd today passed the buck to the Opposition. This comes just days after Sinn Féin shamefully joined with the DUP to block action on agricultural sources of the pollution in Lough Neagh.

“When our housebuilding slows even further, Lough Neagh slides further into ecological breakdown and more of our citizens experience foul-smelling tap water there should be no doubt which ministers chose to act and which shifted blame and ignored the warnings of experts.”