Debate contribution: Financial Support for Rural Communities in Mid Ulster

Debate contribution by Ms Emma Sheerin on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Ms Emma Sheerin

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Financial Support for Rural Communities in Mid Ulster

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658854

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank my fellow Member for Mid Ulster for bringing the debate to the Chamber. Like Keith, I have a passion for Mid Ulster, a largely rural constituency. Anybody who knows me will know that I am from a farming family and proud of the fact. As has been said, Mid Ulster has a largely rural population: about 155,000 people live within the confines of our district, and 69% of them live in what is deemed a rural area, outside our big towns of Magherafelt, Dungannon, Cookstown and Coalisland. When talking about support for our rural communities, it would be difficult to get through — although I note that my constituency colleague did — without mentioning the elephant in the room that is Brexit. That is what has pulled money out of Mid Ulster. Through the years, we saw massive benefit from EU funding in the single farm payment, which was invaluable for our farming community. I always make the argument that the money that is put into agriculture benefits not only those who are employed in farm businesses but a host of other industries that rely on farmers and agriculture to consume their products. Think of engineering in Mid Ulster, which is a massive employer, the trailer producers and the people who make other bits of machinery that are bought and used by farmers; think of our machinery dealers and tractor dealers, all of whom rely on our farming community; and think of all the other people who are employed in various aspects of contributing economies. We do not have the replacement funds for the single farm payment. We know that the funding is down 18% this year, and it will no longer be ring-fenced. It will compete with other pressures in our block grant, which is unfair and is causing an awful lot of anxiety amongst our farming population. Other measures that we heard about the week before last in the British Government's Budget, such as the change for double cab pickups and the inheritance tax change, will have a massive impact on a lot of family farms across the North. All that contributes to a lack of confidence in our farming community and a lack of ability to make the changes and improvements to their farms that are so badly needed. LEADER has been referenced. In the past, I had the privilege of sitting on our local action group (LAG) board in Mid Ulster, and I could see the local benefit that we were able to get through the rural development programme. It is estimated that, between 2016 and 2020, up to £15 million went into our local groups, GAA halls, mother-and-toddler groups and all sorts of community groups. I think also of An Ráth Dubh in my constituency, the Sixtowns Cross Community Group, the Workspace Group and a load of other social enterprise groups that work throughout south Derry, bring employment into the area and further the aspirations of local people. That money has been lost. That was a ground-up scheme that allowed local people to have an input in where investment should go. I welcome the announcement just this week from our Finance Minister, Dr Caoimhe Archibald, of an additional £2 million for TRPSI. However, we have not seen any confirmation of the capital works programme that previously led to a lot of development at Moydamlaght Forest. We want to see a furthering of that development and await news on that programme. As was the case with so many things in the wake of the Brexit debate, we were told that the Shared Prosperity Fund would be released and would replace all the EU money that our rural areas previously received. Not a penny have we seen from the Shared Prosperity Fund, which is a real concern for local groups. I have spoken to the like of Agewell in Magherafelt, where Marie does an amazing job with our older population. We have a massive older population in Mid Ulster, who are dispersed and are living in very rural areas. Their funding has gone. Where will future funding come from? That is the anxiety that rural people are facing. We are coming into the winter: everything is a wee bit harder when you live in the hills and there is snow falling or frost on the ground. That is another challenge that we have to deal with. I reiterate the calls of others from across the House for increased funding for our local communities for agriculture, for other rural affairs and for the people who live outside our agriculture families. I do not envy the Minister's task of trying to provide that funding when we have left the EU, but I am committed to working with him and all his Executive colleagues to try to get some funding into our rural areas.

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

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