Allister flays Gildernew in European Parliament
19 February 2009
Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister succeeded in raising this week's debacle over Farm Modernisation Grants in the European Parliament. Speaking in an adjournment debate Mr Allister did not spare Minister Gildernew for the embarrassment brought to Northern Ireland by the public rebuke from the Commission of the lottery distribution of EU funds. Describing her approach as "cavalier" he described her as unfit for office, having demeaned farmers by making them queue in public to recover their own money - in that rural development is substantially funded by money modulated from Single Farm Payments - and because of her failure to understand EU distribution rules.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
"EU funds distributed by the lottery of first come, first served is wrong. Yet, that is what we've seen in Northern Ireland this week.
The Minister who decided on cavalier distribution of EU Rural Development Funds on this basis, leading to the demeaning and bizarre spectacle of farmers queuing for 2 days to get some of their own modulated money back, is not fit to hold office, because at a stroke, she both humiliated hard-working farmers and displayed crass ignorance of the basic requirements on the distribution of EU funds.
The source of this embarrassment is the wanton refusal of the Minister to allocate sufficient funds to Rural Development. The pitiful £50m she put into Axis 1 and only £15m of that into this Modernisation Fund, is what caused the spectacle of Tuesday."
View this speech on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdxCJO-JiI0
