Debate contribution: On-farm Investment
Debate contribution by Lord Elliott on .
- MLA
- Lord Elliott
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 17 June 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- On-farm Investment
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4496283
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am not speaking as Chair of the Committee; I am speaking as a Member of the Assembly. I welcome today's debate. I think that we all have something in common: we want to improve our environment, air quality and sustainability. We also need to ensure that we have a proactive, positive agricultural sector that can provide for many nations. We rely on it for our food in Northern Ireland, but our farmers provide food for many communities throughout Great Britain, Ireland, the European Union and further afield. I note that the overall agricultural planning caseload in the system at the end of May was 185 planning applications. I am not sure whether it has since deviated slightly from that figure, but that was the figure that I was given. For some time, there was quite a bit of confusion between the rules and assessments of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and those of the Shared Environmental Service. Trying to make sense of which of those bodies' figures should be accepted provided quite a lot of difficulty for planners in whatever council area they were in. In fairness, I understand that the Shared Environmental Service does not have anything to do with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs; it is a body that is engaged by local councils, but that confusion did not help the situation. The system that we currently have is stifling development and production in Northern Ireland. At the same time, without the allowance for replacement construction, the situation is proving extremely difficult. The Member who spoke previously, Miss McIlveen, talked about the issue around replacement buildings. I want to focus a wee bit on that issue. Replacement buildings are treated the same as a new building. You may have a livestock house that houses 100 cattle or 200 sheep — it may only be 50 sheep or 10 cattle — which is a replacement and fulfils the criterion of being 7·5 km away from a protected site to need an emissions or ammonia assessment. That is quite a distance if you have to walk it, and I am sure that many of us would be tired by the time we got there. It is a significant distance, and those people — almost all my constituents who fall into that criterion — have to make planning applications. They no longer have permitted development rights, so they have to make a planning application and try to meet that stringent criterion. Even if farmers are making a betterment to their system and previous construction by having improved facilities, which may even have mitigation measures to stop some emissions, they are still treated as though it is a new construction. That is a huge downside for those individuals. They are left with old buildings that may not be fit for purpose for the animals and livestock housed in them, but they cannot build a new one, even though the mitigating measures would reduce emissions, because the NIEA treats that the same as it would a totally new construction. If I am asking for anything to come out of this debate, it is that the Minister and the Department look very seriously at that issue and at least allow for a replacement where there is a betterment, clearly giving significant weight to that.
I am happy to give way.
Thank you. I thank the Member for those comments. He is absolutely right. It is hugely off-putting and demoralising for young farmers who come back from training to realise that, all of a sudden, they cannot build and develop a farm business as they would like. We know that there are and have to be restrictions, but the situation is inhibiting the agriculture process. It inhibits the business of agriculture in Northern Ireland and is hugely detrimental not only to young people but, I have to say to the Member, to a few older ones who would like to develop and get into a better farming system, which the current system is prohibiting. I am asking seriously that the issue is looked at and resolved to allow for not only sustainability in the sector but development.
701 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.