Farmers face payment raid as Sinn Fein pushes ANC Bill through – McIlveen

She warned that Sinn Fein's ANC Bill will be paid for out of their Farm Sustainability Payments.

It follows this week's Agriculture Committee meeting, where Sinn Fein's Declan McAleer MLA revealed amendments to the Bill. The amendments push implementation back from 12 to 24 months and remove the index-linked inflationary increase. The Committee will carry out its clause-by-clause consideration next week.

Michelle McIlveen MLA said: "These amendments should come as no surprise. Given the Minister's honeyed words to the Bill sponsor at Question Time, there has clearly been some political horse-trading with the Alliance Party. What else is being negotiated behind the scenes? It is time that the main farm lobby organisations urgently clarify their position on the Bill. Until now, the UFU's position was that it did not support the Bill if no new money was found. We currently have senior UFU elected representatives lobbying behind the scenes in favour of money being removed from Farm Sustainability Payments to support ANC payments. We need urgent clarity on whether these people are lobbying on behalf of themselves or the UFU. We also need other farm lobby organisations, who represent dairy, cattle and sheep farmers, to make their position clear. Are they happy for cuts to be made to Farm Sustainability Payments to fund very large landowners?

"These amendments change the timetable, not the outcome. There is still no additional money for this scheme. The DAERA Minister has made clear it would be funded by top-slicing existing Farm Sustainability Payments. Dairy farmers, cereal growers and lowland beef and sheep producers will still pay for it. The problem is that the rates of payment going towards the ANC will not be known until this Bill has been approved and passed into law. The last ANC scheme gave farmers approximately £25 per hectare, resulting in thousands of pounds being directed towards large hill farmers. The real danger is that the rates for the new scheme will not be set until the next mandate, when it will be virtually impossible to prevent a massive redistribution of money within Northern Ireland at a time when the amount of money coming towards the agricultural budget could fall significantly. When this law is passed, it will be within a Minister's right to move this funding without getting any approvals,” added Ms McIlveen.

"This Bill is now moving at pace, and many farmers outside ANC areas have no idea their payments are at risk. Currently there is a lobby campaign rightly objecting to farmers losing a percentage of their Farm Sustainability Payment if they do not carry out a farm carbon audit. The industry needs to realise that there is a far greater risk of the ANC Bill removing a large percentage of farm payments. I would urge every one of them to contact their local MLAs this week and ask one simple question: will you vote to cut my payment? Silence now will cost them later.

"The DUP supports fair and targeted help for farmers facing genuine disadvantage. We will not support a scheme that pits one section of farming against another. Northern Ireland agriculture needs more investment, not Sinn Fein moving money from one farmer's pocket into another's."