Butler: Minister has moved, but he has moved alone

Robbie Butler said: “Hundreds of farmers stood outside Stormont on Monday, the Ulster Farmers' Union said publicly it was disappointed no Terms of Reference had been produced, and the Ulster Unionist Party wrote to the Minister demanding an independent inquiry and warning him not to write his own terms. Nobody should be in any doubt about what moved this along.

“The scope is wider than many expected. But the Minister wrote the terms himself and chose the reviewer himself. He did not consult the Ulster Farmers' Union, he did not consult the community that watched this happen in a field, and he did not consult those of us who have been raising these concerns on their behalf.

“This is why we asked for an independent inquiry rather than a review, and why a review falls short of it. The reviewer can speak to departmental officials. He can only speak to anyone else if they choose to come forward. He cannot compel a single witness outside DAERA. An inquiry would have had those powers from the outset. That is the difference between establishing what happened and being told what happened.

“The use of firearms is not mentioned once in the Terms of Reference, yet on Monday the Minister told the Committee he could not say how many shots were fired because it was a matter for the review. It cannot be a matter for the review if it is not in the terms of the review.

“When the report is finished it goes to the Department, with publication promised only subject to legal and other considerations that DAERA itself will judge. The Minister should commit today to publishing it in full and laying it before the Assembly on the day he receives it.

“There is a single test for all of this. Does it restore the confidence of farmers and the wider public, and does it change how this Department deals with the people it serves? Right across the countryside there is a settled belief that DAERA does not hear farmers' concerns until those concerns are shouted at it from outside Stormont. That belief did not begin at Fivemiletown and it will not end with a report that identifies lessons and moves on. A process that cannot compel evidence is unlikely to reach the culture that produced this, and it is the culture that has to change.

“I would encourage anyone who witnessed the operation or holds relevant evidence to submit it to the reviewer. The Terms of Reference provide for that, and the more first-hand evidence he receives, the harder it will be for anything to be quietly set aside.”