Time to ‘grasp nettle and support farmers’

In a hard-hitting speech in the House of Lords, Ulster Unionist peer Lord Elliott condemned the lack of support being given to farmers and highlighted a number of issues, challenges and inequalities that were holding back the industry and wider rural community.

He told the Lords that it was time to “grasp the nettle” and recognise the farming community was putting food on tables, generating jobs and playing a major economic role despite being unable to set its own prices.

“If I go and buy a product in a shop, that price is set and I have to pay it. When we produce our milk, beef, sheep or wheat, we have to take whatever price the next part of the food chain gives us. We do not have that opportunity,” said Lord Elliott.

He highlighted the difficulties the construction of the A5 dual carriageway was causing through the compulsory purchase of farm land.

“Farmers and landowners have had that land vested for months and have not even got an offer of a valuation for it,” he said.

“Is that fair or reasonable? Those farmers cannot plan for their future. They do not know whether they will have the use of that land this summer to produce their food stocks. They have no idea; that is totally unfair.

“I have talked to other farmers in a similar position who lost their land six years ago by vesting for a road scheme and who still have not got a penny. It is totally unfair and unreasonable. How would anybody here like it if their vehicle was impounded by the government, used for their purposes and not paid for?”

Lord Elliott said while financial support was essential for the farming community, it also needed the government to pursue policies that allowed agriculture to prosper rather than having roadblocks placed in the way.

“One aspect I will highlight is that where there are opportunities to improve animal housing – livestock housing – and to build modern, state-of-the-art housing, we in Northern Ireland are broadly not permitted to do that if we are within 7.5 kilometres of a European-designated site,” he said.

“That prevents us doing it. It does not matter what level of audits, surveys and assessments are carried out.

“If we are not meeting the targets, we cannot even replace it with housing that would be much better for the environment and have far lower greenhouse gas emissions. We are still not permitted to do it. Farmers need those types of policies, not just financial support.”

The peer added: “Sometimes I believe that there are people and communities in this society who would rather we imported all our goods instead of producing our own, because that might mean we can hit our climate change targets more easily. That is not the case for me. I want us to produce them locally and to a better standard than others,”

Lord Elliott also touched on the broader difficulties of being based in rural areas, and in particular the difficulties of attracting specialist help.

He told his fellow peers: “I come from County Fermanagh, where we have one state-of-the-art hospital. It has been open for only 12 years but we have theatres and beds in it that have never been used because we cannot get the health professionals to come and live in the rural areas. There needs to be a change in attitude, policy and direction.”