To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what role (i) his Department; and (ii) the Northern Ireland Environment Agency would have in any considerations by the Strategic Investment Board on residual waste infrastructure requirements.

In 2018 the Department commissioned the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) to carry out an analysis of residual waste tonnage in Northern Ireland by 2030 and provide an assessment of residual waste infrastructure requirements to help inform decision makers as to the residual waste treatment capacity required to be operational by 2030. The forecast period to be reported on was later extended to 2035 to align with time frames within the EU Circular Economy Package.

As the waste regulator for Northern Ireland, NIEA receives waste data from a number of sources such as site returns data from permitted and licenced waste facilities, councils waste returns data and data relating to the movement of certain wastes. The SIB used information from this data collection for analysis and to inform considerations by the SIB on residual and other waste infrastructure requirements.

SIB completed their report, ‘Analysis of NI Residual Waste arisings to 2035’, at the end of 2019. As waste arisings closely align with economic activity discussions on updating the report to factor in the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have taken place between DAERA and SIB.

This report will assist in my consideration of the strategic and long-term needs for residual waste infrastructure in Northern Ireland.