Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Declan McAleer on 19 February 2024.

MLA

Mr Declan McAleer

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

19 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4223603

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am thankful for the opportunity to address the House on the Budget 2023-24. I will speak as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on agriculture, as a representative of a large rural constituency and as a member of the AERA Committee. I have a keen interest in achieving the long-term economic growth of our communities, rural and urban. It is welcome that the Executive are prioritising public-sector pay with an allocation of £688 million for our hard-working public-sector workers. The DAERA statement on the 2023-24 Budget indicates that there will be major challenges ahead in meeting statutory and contractual commitments, with difficult decisions to be made. The threats that we heard recently from the Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris, to impose new charges on farmers for bovine TB testing and future cuts to compensation for TB are punitive. It is clear that the Tories are pursuing an ideological agenda that is punishing farmers and the wider public. Farmers, as we know, already face a range of challenges. The Chair of the AERA Committee touched on some of them, particularly those to do with TB. The proposed additional charges will place an extra burden and stress on farmers and their families, who are already struggling. The Tory Government have slashed the block grant, so we must ensure that there is no differential impact on the section 75 groups. At all times, we must work to ensure equality of opportunity. The DAERA resource budget for 2023-24 has ring-fenced funding of £328·5 million for agriculture, the agrienvironment, the wider rural economy and fisheries. However, there is no certainty beyond 2024 about the budget for direct payments. Even more worryingly, the Labour Party in Britain has indicated that there will be a reduced farm budget if or when they are elected. As a consequence of leaving the EU, we are no longer part of the EU common agricultural policy. The funding model here is now different, with resource money coming from one pot provided by the British Government since EU exit and managed annually. As we know, agriculture is a pillar of the local economy, and agriculture and food processing are island-wide industries. The uncertainty about what will replace the agriculture budget post 2024 for farming families, the rural economy and the agri-food supply chain could threaten the viability of agriculture production and have a negative impact on rural communities. That same uncertainty goes for the rural development programme, which was 50% funded by the EU when we were in it. In contrast, our neighbours in the South of Ireland have certainty: they have a six-year multi-annual budget from the common agricultural policy. Farmers in the North will struggle to survive and compete with their neighbours across the border, where there is a level of certainty about direct payments continuing beyond 2024. Indeed, that could distort both our ability to compete with our neighbours in the South and the all-island market. As a Sinn Féin MLA, I want to give a clear message to the British Government that we need to see the farm support continue post 2024 and a future budget ring-fenced, as was the case for the pillar 1 EU CAP payments. It is important to remind people who are not from a rural background that, preceding our leaving the EU, the single farm payment, which accounted for 80% to 90% of a farmer's income, came as a ring-fenced payment directly from the EU and was separate from our block grant. It is important to note that, when we were taken out of the EU, the UK Government promised that that lost EU funding would be replaced. That pledge needs to be stuck to. Certainly, I will implore the Executive, our Finance Minister and, indeed, the AERA Minister to ensure that that commitment is lived up to.

633 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:37 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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