Debate contribution: Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on .
- MLA
- Dr Steve Aiken OBE
- 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 5776752
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I would like to have said that it is good to have the Minister here listening to the debate. Over many years in the Chamber, I have seen Ministers be held to account. Some Ministers have shown backbone by being here to listen to what is being said. It is up to Ministers to give as good as they get, to explain the situation, to defend their position or to answer questions. I was very surprised to see Alliance flounce out like that. We have been told time and time again by the party's leadership that it would not do pantomime-like activity, yet it has done just that. It is fundamentally important that Ministers be held to account. They need to be here. We have already seen an example this week of a Minister's being reticent to appear here. One of the real issues — what this comes down to — is confidence in the system. Many Members will be aware of 'Yes Minister' and the degree to which Ministers seem to be manipulated by officials in that. Talk to anyone in agribusiness or the farming community about the Department of the Environment — people do not consider it to be the Department of Agriculture — and, time and again, they will say that the Minister is in the thrall of his officials and that the officials are setting the direction. Those officials seem to have forgotten the very clear dictum that officials are supposed to advise, and Ministers are supposed to decide. It seems that very little decision-making is going on in the Department of Agriculture. Time and again, the Department's direction of travel seems to be at the whim of the officials. One thing about having politicians, not civil servants, running government is that Ministers are supposed to have their political antennae up for issues that are likely to be of considerable concern to the people. Someone who is supposedly a Minister of Agriculture must listen to farmers and the agribusiness community. If the agribusiness community is saying clearly that something is not right and that this is wrong, one would expect the Minister to listen, rather than to go out and castigate the people who are delivering the message. Doing that fundamentally undermines the faith and confidence that people have in the delivery of government. We have heard a lot about how this place does not seem to deliver, but one of the fundamental aspects is for a Minister to actually do his job. If that means listening to the people whom he is supposed to represent, he should be doing that. I can tell you, right now, that our Health Minister listens avidly and that he will react to whatever has been said. To not even have an Agriculture Minister sitting in the Chamber as we discuss something that is so fundamental to animal welfare is extraordinary.
Certainly.
I thank the Member very much for that rather prolix intervention. I will make one thing quite clear: I meet regularly with members of the farming community across South Antrim, and they have no confidence whatsoever in the Agriculture Minister or in the Department of Agriculture. They feel as though issues are being imposed on them, that there is no communication and that it is nearly as if there is an attempt to destroy their businesses when they have enough challenges as it is. The substantial question that needs to be asked is this: what is the Minister scared of? Why is there an empty chair where he was? What is he hiding? What other issues are there? How many other cattle culls have there been? How many other issues concerning animal welfare has his Department failed on? How many failures have there been in the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and checking on diseased animals? How many times have people raised significant environmental issues in laboratories that he has walked back on? Why is he scared of scrutiny? For that and no other reason, I have no confidence in him. I definitely do not have any confidence in the Alliance Party, which has flounced out rather than being here to expose itself to the scrutiny that any other Minister — well, most other Ministers — would.
709 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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