DUP Conference 2006 Speech
04 February 2006
Speaking today in the Agricultural Debate at the DUP Conference 2006, MEP Jim Allister said,
"It is clear this vital sector is under immense pressure: pressure generated by the twin burden of poor return and debilitating reform. The resulting consequences are clear: 550 farms in NI went out of business last year, this 2% reduction per annum has been going on for 10 years. In that time 6500 individual farmers have ceased trading. Incomes last year were kept up only by the effect of the Single Farm Payment.
The implementation plan for the Nitrates Directive being devised will bring further challenges. I'm on record as criticising the Department's "ourselves alone" attitude to those negotiations. With on the hoof changes, like the last minute introduction of a nitrogen capping and the imprecise ban on spreading on slopes over 20%, this is shaping up as an unnecessarily burdensome proposal. I welcome the fact that several stakeholders, when belatedly consulted, have raised similar concerns.
In the longer term the WTO negotiations and further CAP reform, pose serious challenges. Mr Mandelson, interested most in the "glory" of a deal, seems far too ready to sacrifice agricultural interests. Already in the run up to Hong Kong he went much further than he ought and if he completes the journey he has started, there is the real risk that Western Europe will become dependent for its red meat supply on South America. The inability to compete with such cheap imports will drive margins down even further and drive many out of business - as it drove Farm Fed Chickens out of Coleraine. Thus, in Europe I am constantly urging caution and the necessity of preserving our national food production capacity.
You might have thought that the minimum response by Government to all the prevailing pressures would be a Minister wholly engaged on behalf of the sector. Arranging photo-shoots to ensure his photograph appears every week in the farming press is a poor substitute for taking the battle for agriculture to where it needs to be waged, primarily in Brussels.
Yet, this is a Minister, though responsible for agriculture, fisheries and environment - three areas all shaped by what is decided in Europe - who hasn't even troubled to ever, yes ever, visit Brussels. Nor, I can tell you did he think it worth his while to even speak to Mandelson before the WTO negotiations.
Yet he is part of the NIO gang who have the audacity to accuse Assembly Members of taking money under false pretences! Assembly Members do the job they are allowed to do, NIO Ministers take the money and don't do the job they should!
And, of course, when we exposed Lord Rooker over his woeful neglect of the Fish Quota negotiations before Christmas, he let the NIO's true agenda slip by saying if we wanted a full-time Minister, then we should agree on devolution.
Yes, even in agriculture and fisheries we can see at work a politically driven programme to make Direct Rule as unpalatable as possible in an effort to soften us up to work the Belfast Agreement. Shame on you Lord Rooker that you would jeopardise the livelihoods of our people to force your political agenda.
I've a message for Lord Rooker and his master, "Troops Out Hain". It's a message articulated to me by a fisherman from Kilkeel as we discussed in Brussels Rooker's deliberate boycott of the Ministerial Council - "If the British Government think they'll make the men of the Mourne swallow Martin McGuinness in government as the price of catching a few more prawn, then they understand nothing about us. And what goes for the men of the Mourne, goes for the granite-like Unionist people throughout Ulster. So back off Hain and underlings, and do your job - the job you're being paid to do! Unionists are in no mood to be budged by your policy of economic deprivation.
Let me conclude on a more positive note. After 10 long years, we hopefully are edging towards the recommencement of beef exports. At many levels of the Party we've been working hard on this issue, the MPs in Westminster and I in Brussels. It is critical for Northern Ireland that full live exports are included in the lifting of the ban. Only, then can we resuscitate our beef and suckler industry."
