Irwin says Minister Muir out of touch with farmers

Mr Irwin pointed to Minister Muir and his Alliance Party colleagues contributions in the Chamber on Tuesday during committee business relating to the Direct Payments to Farmers (Cross-Compliance) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024: Prayer of Annulment.

Mr Irwin said “Alliance Party ideology” appeared more important to Minister Muir than the realities of “everyday life for farmers in Northern Ireland”.

He stated: “The reality of the situation is clear and stark for farmers. A decision was made by the previous Minister Poots MLA to sensibly reduce the severity of fines imposed on farmers for unintentional breaches and this was after a great deal of consideration, court cases and real life experiences of farmers. The DAERA Committee in recent weeks has twice rejected the advances of the current Minister Muir MLA to re-impose these severe penalties on farmers for unintentional breaches and twice he has been defeated at Committee.”

He added: “In such situations it would be normal for a Minister, twice defeated at committee, to re-evaluate and take an interest in what the committee has said and the reasons why that committee has rejected the Minister’s course of action. Sadly, instead, during the Assembly debate on this issue on Tuesday, Minister Muir and his Alliance Party colleagues have placed their own party ideology far above the lived experience of farmers out on the ground. Which I must say I find to be no surprise.”

Mr Irwin continued: “The Minister is continuing in his attempts to bring back draconian EU penalties for farmers, which in the vast bulk of cases are not in any way directly related to the environment nor the care of the environment. Yet the Minister continues to cite the need to protect the environment as his reason for re-imposing these draconian penalties.

“Now in the Assembly Chamber he has been defeated via the Prayer of Annulment and I would respectfully ask him to take time to reassess his position and avoid plunging our farmers and our agriculture industry into further hardship. Everyone wants to protect the environment but reintroducing a harsh and unresponsive penalty system that could see farmers loose out thousands of pounds unintentionally is not the way to do it. The evidence is there I encourage the Minister to read it and respond with sensible, goal achieving policies.”