Incoming minister will be urged to ‘scrap plans to change minimum claim size’ says MLA

Declan McAleer said an incoming Agriculture Minister will be urged to scrap plans to change the minimum claim size.

Last week, Edwin Poots announced the 54 policy decisions on the Future Agricultural Policy for Northern Ireland.

During the consultation process, the majority of responses were opposed to a minimum claim size of 10 hectares for a Farm Resilience Payment.

With that in mind, the claim size was set at five hectares for a Farm Sustainability Payment, which recognises the need for continuation of an income support ‘safety net’.

However, Mr McAleer, who is chair of Stormont’s Agriculture Committee, believes the minister should have gone even further, with Sinn Féin proposing to keep the minimum claim size to three hectares to better support small family farmers.

Mr McAleer said his party will “continue to stand up for family farms” and has called on the DAERA Minister to scrap his plans, “which would put thousands of family farms out of business”.

The West Tyrone representative stated: “Sinn Féin will continue to stand up for family farms and will call on an incoming agriculture minister to scrap plans to change the minimum claim size.

“Rather than engaging in stunt politics, the DUP should commit to working with the rest of us in a restored Executive so that we can better support hard pressed farming families,” Mr McAleer added.