Options to create an independent environment protection agency in Northern Ireland are to be considered by a panel of experts as part of a new Stormont review.

Environment Minister Andrew Muir has appointed three experts to carry out the review in a bid to strengthen environmental governance.

Muir had promised to address growing public concerns over the pollution of Northern Ireland’s waterways.

It comes more than a year after the UK’s biggest freshwater lake, Lough Neagh, turned green due to the growth of toxic blue-green algae.