DUP MLA Gareth Wilson has expressed his frustration at the “lack of clear answers” provided by DAERA Minister Andrew Muir and his officials during an emergency meeting of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs committee today (Monday.)

The AERA committee met with the minister and his officials at Stormont to discuss the recent cattle cull in Fivemiletown.

Mr Wilson, who is a member of the committee, described the meeting as a “golden opportunity” for the minister and his Department to “set the record straight” on both the actions taken by the Department and the justification for those actions.

“I recognise the clear strength of feeling from Departmental staff around this issue, and it was deeply regrettable that they have been subject to abuse which must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “However, there remain unanswered questions and apparent inconsistencies in the Department's account of events.”

The Newry and Armagh representative said he was “deeply frustrated” by the “repeated reliance on the external review as a justification for not addressing obvious questions that members of the public were eager to know the answer to”.

“If the external review will look at the facts impartially before making their findings public, I do not see why the Department could not outline its position or other basic facts that will subsequently come into the public domain,” he added.

“There was also a failure to clearly recognise that things did not run smoothly throughout this series of events. In particular, the account of the events at the third cull site seems chaotic and appears to clash with the Department’s view that the cull was well planned after all other options were exhausted.

“The revelation that on the day of the cull the farmer in question was facilitating the sale of a number of cattle and therefore was making attempts to remove these animals from their care raises further questions.

“It is important that the external review now moves forward at pace to provide the answers the Department was so unwilling to provide.”