Debate contribution: Agriculture Bill: Extension of Committee Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on 20 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Robbie Butler

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

20 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Agriculture Bill: Extension of Committee Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4744232

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. On behalf of the AERA Committee, I request an extension to the Committee Stage of the Agriculture Bill to 23 May 2025. The motion was agreed after discussions in Committee on 12 December 2024. The Committee first heard of the proposed content of the Bill on 20 June, when officials briefed us on the outcome of the consultation that ran from 3 April to 27 May. We were informed that the Bill would have a narrow focus on directly amending assimilated law governing the legacy EU fruit and vegetables aid scheme (FVAS) and provide scope for DAERA to further amend the legislation that covers that scheme and another legacy EU scheme for agri-food information and promotion. At that meeting, we also heard from a mushroom producer organisation and Commercial Mushroom Growers UK, which highlighted the benefits of the current FVAS as it gives certainty for long-term planning. Even at that early stage, the Committee recognised that, although a short Bill had been proposed, there would be considerable scrutiny to do. The Department's consultation had limited responses and revealed mixed views on the proposal that FVAS support would become discretionary. However, there was support for the need for DAERA to have a power to provide for the development of policy. The Bill was not introduced until 25 November 2024, and Committee Stage commenced on 4 December. We started our scrutiny on 12 December with a briefing from the agri-food legislation branch. Officials then confirmed that the Bill amends the legislation governing FVAS to make support under that legislation discretionary, that it confers the power to make modifications to that legislation and that it provides a power to modify the legislation governing promotional schemes for agricultural products. The Committee heard from the Research and Information Service (RaISe) on 16 January, which was last week, with a briefing on the RaISe Agriculture Bill research paper. RaISe highlighted a number of pertinent queries and issues that the Committee will want to pursue in detail with external witnesses and departmental officials. Those include the specific impact on the mushroom sector and the fact that the Bill was introduced before the completion of reviews into post-EU agriculture support. At this stage, the Committee has a live Citizen Space survey, which will not close until mid-February, and is inviting around 14 organisations from the mushroom, fruit and veg and environmental sectors to give evidence. The Committee wishes to give the focused issues and wider impact of the Bill due diligence and scrutiny while keeping its important scrutiny of statutory rules, common frameworks and agriculture, environment and fishing policy moving forward. The Committee is also aware of the need to provide sufficient time for deliberations and to allow time for the potential overlapping of a second Bill in the not-too-distant future. The Committee wishes to scrutinise making the FVAS discretionary. In budget-constrained times, we have all had experience of discretionary spend being what is described as "low-hanging fruit". We also wish to scrutinise the enabling power to amend the legislation to align with future farming policy and post-EU exit policy, which are still under the development of our Minister. We know that those powers would allow for Northern Ireland-specific schemes, but we see much broader sectoral producer organisation coverage in England and Scotland, and there is work to be done to understand why we have not had that uptake here in Northern Ireland. We know that one of the considerations was to include the proposals in this Bill in a broader agriculture Bill, so we wish to hear views on whether we are putting the cart before the horse and whether it is valid to do so in advance of a wider Bill in the manner that is proposed in this Bill. In conclusion, having consulted the Bill Office and considered the evidence that we wish to take and our ongoing work, the Committee is seeking the support of the House to extend the Committee Stage of the Agriculture Bill to 23 May 2025, albeit the Committee will endeavour to report in advance of that date if at all possible.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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