Budget is still stranglehold on farmers, warns UUP
Mr Robert Carmichael, the East Londonderry Ulster Unionist Party association chairman, has branded the recent autumn budget by Chancellor John Healey as “no breathing space, but a stranglehold on the farming community in the constituency and across the wider Province”.
In a hard-hitting response on behalf of the UUP association, Mr Carmichael described measures in the budget “like bringing a package of peanuts to a banquet”.
Mr Carmichael added: “The farming community across East Londonderry and the wider Northern Ireland is under tremendous pressure at the moment.
“To give our agricultural sector a fighting chance for a long-term future, we needed to see Chancellor Healey make the bold and much-needed step of completely scrapping the notorious Family Farm Tax, which has been a millstone around the necks of so many of our farming families.
“In this respect, the Chancellor was found seriously wanting. Any measures which he did announce which apply to Northern Ireland will not do much - if anything - to help everyday life of our farmers. We needed radical action to boost our agricultural sector; instead, all we got was effectively well-spoken rhetoric.
“As far as we in the East Londonderry UUP association are concerned, the Chancellor needs to go back to the drawing board and draw up an effective plan of action that will secure the long-term future of our farming community. The measures announced in the autumn budget fell way short of this target,” said Mr Carmichael.