NI Environment Link (NIEL) has welcomed the passing of the Assembly motion on 10^th November 2025, which called for the establishment of an independent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before the end of the mandate (which is due to end no later than 6^th May 2027). This comes just a week after the publication of the final report of the Review of Environmental Governance, which recommended an EPA be established as a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) and is the second Assembly motion calling for an EPA to be established before the end of this mandate (after the Assembly motion of 13^th May 2024).

The report’s findings need to be considered in the wider context of environmental decline in NI, which means we are not on track to meet environmental targets set out in law. For example, NI received a ranking of 12 (out of 240 countries and territories, where a ranking of 1 is the lowest biodiversity intactness and 240 the highest) in a Biodiversity Intactness Index. According to the Water Framework Directive Statistics report published in December 2021 by DAERA, no rivers, no lakes and no transitional and coastal water bodies in Northern Ireland achieved good environmental status in 2021 and only 68% of groundwater resources achieving good status. The most recent Programme for Government  acknowledged “Our natural environment is vital to everyone’s health and wellbeing, both now and in the future.” We need action to better protect our environment and establishing an independent EPA would be a very significant step in that process.

As the AERA Minister said in the Assembly on the 4^th November, “The current environmental governance system is not fit for purpose and is failing everyone. The crisis in our environment is also a governance crisis, and thus governance reform is a critical part of the solution.”

The need for an independent EPA has long been recognised in NI, and now that the case for an independent EPA has again been clearly made and effectively settled by this most recent review, NIEL believes the focus of work in this area should now be on delivering upon the recommendations and ensure an independent EPA is established, before the end of this Assembly mandate.

As the networking and umbrella body for environmental organisations in NI, NIEL is committed to playing its part in progressing this work and will provide its full support to the AERA Minister and wider Executive in doing so. For NIEL, there is a need for our elected representatives and the Civil Service to take action at pace, and to collaborate on the basis of a shared vision for a better protected environment in NI and establish an independent EPA for NI as a matter of urgency.