MLA being ‘condescending towards farming community’
During a heated start to Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs questions at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday afternoon Minister Edwin Poots accused the SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole (South Belfast) of being condescending towards the farming community when he put a question to the minister about the Basic Farm Payment Scheme.
Mr O’Toole had asked the minister: “Brexit threatens the very fabric and foundation of agriculture, farming and rural communities in Northern Ireland. I know that the minister supported Brexit - that is his right - and he is entitled to celebrate it, but, since we know that Brexit threatens the majority of farmers’ income in Northern Ireland.
He added: “Notwithstanding the statements that he has made about the next few years and the partial guarantees that we have over farm income, and that there is the threat of cheap food can I ask him that he use his office and the platform and role that he has to stand up for the closest possible alignment between the United Kingdom and the European Union?
He concluded: “That is, I am sure, what the Ulster Farmers’ Union and all farming representatives will tell him.”
Mr Poots replied: “I take the member’s remarks as being condescending towards the farming community, because the feedback that I got from the farming community was that they extensively backed leaving the European Union.”
Mr Poots said: “If anybody wants an evidence base for that, I should say that the farmers’ union held a meeting at Balmoral to which 600 farmers turned up and there was a 90% vote in favour of leaving the European Union.
“Farmers know more about what will affect them and their future than the member who asked the question, representing South Belfast and having only returned from London to do so.”
Mr Poots continued: “I would say that 80% to 90% of the regulation in Europe is currently also the case in Australia and large parts of North America and other key areas.
“Regulatory alignment already exists in many areas. However, are you telling me that, for example, the slurry ban has been good for Northern Ireland? It has not.
“Farmers have not been able to get out and do that activity for the past month when the weather lent itself to doing it.
“Are you telling me that it is a good thing that farmers have to request permission to clean out a sheugh and a departmental official is supposed to give that to them?
“Are you telling me that it is a good thing that a farmer is not allowed to plough over the winter because of soil erosion, which does not exist in this damp climate?
“Those are not good regulations, and I would happily diverge from what Brussels has instructed us to do.
“Many of the 2,800 regulations that have been imposed on us since 1974 are not fit for purpose in Northern Ireland.”
In a follow up question on the scheme Mr John Blair (Alliance, South Antrim) asked of the actions that the minister would be taking to ensure all pillars currently covered by CAP which are not covered in the LCM (Legislative Consent Motion) are addressed and if he planned to meet the Ulster Farmers’ Union to discuss the matter.
Mr Poots replied: “I am meeting the farmers’ union tomorrow. If they have issues of concern, I will be happy to listen.
“All the evidence that I have found shows that we will be able to carry out everything that was in the CAP pillar 1, with one exception, which is a very good exception: because of EU rules, in October 2019, we gave farmers 70% of the funding; in October 2020, because we are out of the European Union, we will give 100% to farmers. I do not think that the farmers’ union will object to that.”