‘Bin the NAP or face court’ Muir warned

The threat of legal action – issued on Wednesday by a group of seven leading agri-food sector organisations – follows the passing of a motion in Stormont by MLAs earlier this week calling for the abandonment of the NAP consultation process.

The group – consisting of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, Dairy Council for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association, Northern Ireland Meat Exporters Association, Northern Ireland Food & Drink Association, Northern Ireland Pork & Bacon Forum, and Northern Ireland Poultry Industry Federation – have issued a letter via solicitors calling on the minister to immediately withdraw the public consultation on his NAP proposals.

They have given the Minister seven days to respond, failing which they reserve the right to issue legal proceedings in the High Court.

“This is a good faith effort to ensure that a revised consultation is lawful, evidence-based, and meaningfully engages with the very people who will be most affected by these proposals,” said UFU president William Irvine.

The letter outlines several serious procedural flaws with the consultation exercise, including:

- Conflicting and unclear information about what is being proposed by the Minister.

- Failure to engage with farmers and stakeholders at the formative stage of policy development, despite repeated commitments in the Environmental Improvement Plan and the draft Programme for Government to co-design agricultural policy with the industry.

- Lack of access to supporting scientific evidence, with references to unpublished research and incomplete data sets in the consultation documents, making it impossible for consultees to adequately interrogate the rationale for the proposals.

- Technical issues and barriers to participation during public consultation events, including inconsistent messaging, lack of live Q&A, and inaccessible recordings.

- Absence of an economic impact assessment, despite the proposals’ likely significant impact on the viability of Northern Ireland’s farming and food production sectors.

The organisations – together representing the breadth of Northern Ireland’s agri-food economy – argue that the consultation process, in its current form, is so fundamentally flawed that it cannot lawfully proceed.

They are calling for the process to be withdrawn immediately and re-run following proper engagement with the sector.

“We’re asking for a fair process. The current consultation leaves too many unanswered questions and hasn’t meaningfully involved the people who will have to implement these proposals,” said Ian Stevenson, chief executive of NI Dairy Council.

Concluding, Mr Irvine added: “This is about getting the foundations right. You can’t build effective regulation on confused proposals and missing evidence. We want to work with DAERA to get to a solution that protects the environment and supports sustainable farming.”

They remain open to constructive engagement to agree a fair way forward and would encourage the Minister to agree to withdraw the current consultation exercise in order avoid the need for litigation.

The minister’s fellow MLAs have also turned up the pressure, voting 52 to 23 in favour of a DUP motion calling for the NAP consultation process to be abandoned.

The petition was put forward by DUP Deputy Leader and Agriculture Spokesperson Michelle McIlveen, who said there was a “deep and growing concern” across the farming and agri-food sector about the direction of the consultation.

She added: “The proposals on the table would do real damage to local agriculture, risking jobs, cutting livestock numbers, and threatening Northern Ireland’s ability to produce food. They spell disaster not just for our family farms, but for our wider economy.

“Farmers and producers are already under huge pressure. They want to be part of the solution when it comes to protecting our environment, but they need a fair and workable plan, not one that feels more like punishment than partnership. That is why we believe this consultation should be withdrawn.”

uring the two-hour debate DUP, Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and TUV MLAs raised concerns on the “demonisation” of the farming industry in Northern Ireland.

Minister Andrew Muir, however, spoke of the environmental disaster at Lough Neagh and stressed that no firm decisions have yet been made on NAP.

DUP MLA Jonny Buckley warned Minister Muir that the motion was his ‘P45’ and Northern Ireland’s farmers were ‘putting him on notice’ over the ‘dead end path of NAP’ which would devastate the only original industry left in Northern Ireland.

During the debate TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said history showed that concerns around blue green algae in Lough Neagh were first being reported in the 1920s when the horse and plough were being used on farms, well before intensive farming practices.