Debate contribution: Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
Debate contribution by Ms Diana Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Diana Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 6 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5776658
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his intervention. As the Ulster Unionist MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, I hear directly from farmers about a growing disconnect between the Department and the people whom it is supposed to serve. There was a time when the Department stood beside them and understood rural communities. Today, too many of them tell me that they feel ignored, dismissed and treated as a problem, rather than as partners. A Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs cannot lead effectively when he has become so disconnected from the people whose confidence he requires. Earlier this year, the Minister stated:
"the days of the Ulster Farmers' Union dictating government policy are over".
Whatever his intention, those remarks were widely viewed as dismissive of Northern Ireland's largest farming organisation. At a time when relationships needed to be strengthened, those comments served only to deepen divisions between the Minister and the farming community.
I thank my MLA colleague from Fermanagh and South Tyrone for that intervention. Yes, that is resonating throughout all our connections and contacts with the farming community. Fivemiletown has become the clearest symbol of that breakdown in trust. That horrendous cull of 51 cattle in Fivemiletown shocked not only the local farming community but people right across Northern Ireland and beyond. The distress caused to the farming community and the widespread public concern surrounding that operation have left a lasting impact. We are told that an independent external review will get to the truth of what happened, but I have to ask the Assembly this question directly: is that review truly independent? Dr Martin Blake, the reviewer appointed by the Department, is a former Chief Veterinary Officer of the Republic of Ireland. DAERA's gifts and hospitality register shows that Dr Blake personally hosted Robert Huey, Northern Ireland's then Chief Veterinary Officer, at a recurring biannual meeting and lunch with DAERA's veterinary service animal health group as recently as November 2022 and again hosted a lunch connected to a UK/Ireland bilateral Chief Veterinary Officers meeting in December 2023. Senior DAERA officials Neal Gartland and Catherine Fisher were invited to that same table. Mr Huey referred, on the record, to Dr Blake as "my colleague" to an Assembly Committee. Those were men who climbed mountains together for charity, who sat on panels together and who worked institutionally together for years. I do not say that that provides bias, but I do say this: when the farming community is already reeling from what it witnessed in a field in Fivemiletown, the very least that that community is owed is a reviewer with no professional history whatsoever with the people who are being reviewed. Instead, the Department hand-picked a veterinary insider who set his own terms of reference and gave farmers and witnesses nothing more than an email address to submit evidence to. There was no public hearing, no date and no transparency.
I thank the Member for her intervention. Yes, it is regrettable that the Alliance Party chose to walk away. Its Members are no doubt listening on-screen now, but I would have much preferred them to be in the Chamber to hear the debate. Regardless of where responsibility for individual decisions ultimately lies, responsibility for the Department rests with the Minister. That is the principle of ministerial accountability, yet, throughout this controversy, farmers have not seen a Minister taking ownership of what occurred under his watch. Instead, they have seen questions deferred, concerns unanswered and responsibility pushed elsewhere. We have also witnessed actions from a Minister whose focus is increasingly on addressing environmental initiatives while the fundamental production side of the agriculture industry —
— is disproportionately regulated and penalised. There is so much more that I could say. It is not a personal attack on the Minister. It is about the principle that Ministers must be accountable —
— to the Departments that they lead. I support the motion.
652 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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