Allister blasts Executive record on Agriculture
25 May 2009
Traditional Unionist Voice MEP Jim Allister has launched a blistering attack on the Executive’s record on agriculture, arguing that there has been very little by way of substance to demonstrate local Ministers are firmly committed to making a positive difference for farmers and farm families.
The MEP commented,
“Northern Ireland has been ill-served by its present DARD Minister, whose lack of initiative towards farming matters, and her narrow pursuit of an all-Ireland framework has cost our industry clear. The dioxin debacle clearly illustrated the fallacy of a ‘fortress Ireland’ approach, rather than a ‘fortress Northern Ireland’ focus on animal health matters, while it is my understanding that import controls on feed remain vulnerable to abuse from unscrupulous traders.”
“The same dysfunctional approach has been demonstrated by the Executive, in forcing farmers to queue in public streets just to try and recoup some of their own modulated money, via the farm modernisation scheme. This spectacle, created by Government did great damage to the public image of Northern Ireland agriculture, as well as causing significant inconvenience for the farmers concerned.
The lack of meaningful support for the agricultural industry is a common theme, demonstrated again by a failure to cover total losses suffered by farmers as a result of last August’s flash flooding, and the subsequent delay in flood payments being made. This is on top of the ongoing delay which many farmers face in receiving Single Farm Payments from as far back as 2005, as a result of the still unresolved duplicate fields issue. Clearly, if there was sufficient will at Executive level, this issue would have been resolved long before now.”
“We could add the Crossnacreevy blunder, whereby DARD-owned lands at AFBI’s Crossnacreevy site were originally valued at £200 million, when it later transpired the true value amounted to just £6 million, yet, the then Finance Minister, now First Minister agreed to an additional £90 million of Government spend based on such poor advice. The Wind turbine scheme, whereby the Executive failed to compensate those farmers who had invested in sub-standard turbines -until I intervened, and the Executive perpetuating the dioxin crisis by failing to make available a fair compensation package to those beef famers –until I intervened, typifies the attitude of the Stormont regime towards the farming industry.”
“The continuing absence of a modernisation programme for the dairy sector, to aid movement away from reliance on whole milk powder exports, is appalling. There is an almost endless list of examples of Executive neglect or ineptness, compounded by the ‘untouchable’ position of Government Ministers in the absence of a proper opposition. With DARD and the Executive largely failing agriculture, the strong independent voice which Jim Allister provides is essential.”
ENDS
