Debate contribution: Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Carroll
- Party at the time
- People Before Profit Alliance
- Date
- 6 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5776793
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I have said several times that no Minister, including the AERA Minister, is beyond reproach. Repeatedly, I have said that the approach adopted by the Executive and the Minister to Lough Neagh in particular has been pretty disastrous and hands-off. Lough Neagh, it is worth reminding ourselves, supplies 40% of our drinking water and is dying in plain sight. It is being strangled and suffocated by policies adopted by this and previous Executives. It is an ecological emergency needing urgent action, but the Minister has talked about a timescale of years or decades. The lough does not have decades. The plants and the animals do not have decades; the fishing community does not have decades; and anybody who uses the lough or lives near it does not have decades. It is worth reminding ourselves that we have had another summer of toxic algae and still no crackdown on agri-polluters. Despite the accusations thrown at the Minister by the party to my right, he has, in many ways, gone out of his way to accommodate and meet the demands of the UFU and the big agri-farmers, which is not the right approach. DAERA's derogations let some farms spread up to 250 kg of waste per hectare, and those derogations are now before the courts. The Minister has said that the days of the Ulster Farmers' Union dictating government policy were over, but, when you do a bit of scrutiny and dig deeper, you see that that is anything but the case.
No. Unlike the Member, I do not need fake lawyers — people who stand on bin lids — to speak for me or give me advice. I can speak for myself. Thank you very much for your intervention. I will go back to the point. When the industry pushed back on the Minister and his plans for the nutrients action programme, he responded to the wishes of the UFU and others in the sector and extended the consultation, handing it to a task and finish group with big farming and the agri-food industry at the table. I and many in the environmental sector would say that that was appeasing the big farming lobby. There is still no independent environmental protection agency (EPA) in the North; we are the only part of these islands without one. Had the DUP Members tabled a motion that included some of that or all of it and had they banged the table and taken to the airwaves on those matters, I would have said, "Do you know what? There is much that I disagree with you about, but you are right about this, and I will vote for the motion", but they did not.
Maybe in a second, if I have time. None of that, however, is stated in the motion. This is an attempt by the DUP to stoke another culture war. Fivemiletown is the pretext, but climate action is the real target, as some Members have let slip. The DUP likes to style itself as the champion of farmers, but, in reality, it champions big agri-food business and factory farms. Questions have been asked about Fivemiletown — people are right to do so — but there is silence on industrial-scale animal abuse by the likes of Moy Park. Nothing is said, and the Members to my right are offended when I and others dare to criticise Moy Park. They also like to kick migrant workers, but there is no recognition of the fact that it is the migrant workers in Moy Park who are making its fortune.
I will give way to the Member.
Yes, I would have liked some answers to my points. I have been consistent about that. The Member to my right wanted in.
I thank the Member for her intervention. My point is that the motion facilitates the anti-climate rhetoric of the DUP and others. I have 30 seconds left, so I need to skip some stuff. There was the disastrous Going for Growth policy and other stuff. This is good for the DUP Ministers because it takes the spotlight off them. It is also worth saying that Minister Muir has faced homophobic abuse and that sectarian and misogynistic language has been directed at his officials: that should be condemned, challenged and called out. I missed Mrs Erskine's speech —
— but I heard no word of condemnation from anyone in the DUP on that.
736 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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