Public health in Northern Ireland is being turned on its head. The establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, the subsequent and hugely significant programme for government drawn up by the Executive and the Investing for health strategy launched in March 2002 - the blueprint for public health for the next ten years - mark a new era for public health in the province.

While in some sense the public health challenges in Northern Ireland do not differ a great deal from many other areas in the British Isles, perhaps for the first time we have a public health policy context and strategy for the province that was developed by the people here, for the people here. The community input into Investing for health was substantial. The methodology and process used by the department in its gestation is to be commended, as is the is adoption of and commitment to the strategy by all government departments.

Coupled with this, we are currently in the middle of a wholesale review of public administration for the province. This is not simply a local government review as I have heard it referred to, but an implicit revamp of the entire public service. This is being paralleled and intertwined with a more specific review of the public health function. Everything is up for scrutiny, questioning and potential change.

Could there be a better policy framework into which to launch Environmental health 2012 in Northern Ireland? The timing is as near perfect as we could have wished for as this document sets out a vision for the contribution that environmental health practitioners can make towards a safer, more socially just and healthier society. Although originally developed jointly by the Health Development Agency and the CIEH, working with EHPs in England, it has been confirmed, with minor amendments to reflect the structural arrangements here, as an equally desirable goal to be realised in Northern Ireland.

This endorsement is not just the view of CIEH staff and office bearers in Northern Ireland. During the last 12 months, the vision has been sanctioned by a think tank of EHPs from the province representing all levels from within the local government service, the Chief Environmental Health Officers Group and the membership at large, through a series of open member forums currently being held across the province.

And it is not just within the profession that the vision has received support. In June 2003, a high level multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary panel, drawn together by the CIEH along with invaluable assistance from the Institute of Public Health in Ireland, convened to consider the document, its aims and the relevance to the future of public health in the province. The verdict was unanimous support and a commitment of input and assistance towards its realisation through participation in a steering group by the individuals involved.

The realisation of our vision will require hard work by many people at many levels both within and outside of the environmental health profession. We are at the beginning of a journey and while we know the place we want to get to, we need to work out our route and what we will need along the way.

This year's CIEH conference will feature a session to consider exactly that. I hope that members from Northern Ireland will participate. For those that cannot, look out for forthcoming opportunities that CIEH in Northern Ireland and the Chief Environmental Health Officers Group intend to afford you and take the opportunity to get involved.

Yes, the road ahead will be full of many challenges. Perhaps for some it may seem impassable, given the feeling of disempowerment that many EHPs within local government feel due to increasing and, at times, disjointed policy edicts that are being placed upon them - one of the things that we as a profession must find more effective ways of questioning. The environmental health service in Northern Ireland is already rising to the challenge. The wealth of innovation, initiative and creativity that flows from departments all across the province is something of which we can be rightly proud.

The ever increasing acknowledgement of the key role that local authorities must play if the prize of a better quality of life for the most disadvantaged in our society is to be won, coupled with the growing acceptance of EHPs as public health practitioners by the wider public health fraternity, means that we may never get a better opportunity to reposition environmental health as a profession to make the maximum contribution it can towards improvement. Carpe diem...

Gary McFarlane is director of CIEH Northern Ireland