I did not know that Lough Neagh was owned by this guy. You learn something new every day, don’t you?

I’d figured that it was owned privately, because most land over here was gifted to someone or other at some point in the last few hundred years, but I didn’t know that it’d all get caught up in murder cases in France. All very strange.

But anyway. The Water Council says that the government should step in and buy the Lough, because

The council is worried that it will be the water consumer who will have to pick up the bill in the future if the lough’s ownership becomes critical.

At the minute, water is extracted for free from the lough.
…
Any new charges would also be passed on, including extra charges for Lough Neagh, were they to be made.

I have a question for the esteemed people at the Water Council: if the state were to buy the Lough, where would the money come from? From general taxation. From us So, we’d end up paying now, to head off the possibility of paying later.

But that’s not the half of it. If the state owns the lough, who has to pay for accidents on it? Who insures it? Who looks out for the eel stocks?

The lough is the biggest body of freshwater in the British isles, with a surface area of over 150 square miles. What’s the price per square mile these days?

And, for the record, I don’t mind water charges. I don’t mind paying for something if I can see exactly what I’m paying for, rather than seeing it in a pie chart following a budget five years later.