Debate contribution: The draft Farm Sustainability (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 18 February 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- The draft Farm Sustainability (Transitional Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4806809
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank Members for their contributions. As I explained at the outset, the regulations are essential to ensure that I can deliver for our farming community by opening the farm sustainability transition payment as planned on 3 March and provide the legal basis for the roll-out of other schemes under the sustainable agriculture programme, including the suckler cow scheme, the Farming with Nature package and the knowledge transfer scheme. As I said, I understand that the ending of the young farmers' payment and the new entrants' scheme in particular is of concern, and I hope that the written responses to the Committee and my remarks today will provide the necessary assurances. I will go through Members' remarks once I have finished making these opening remarks in my conclusion. As I have explained, the Farming for the Generations scheme included in SAP will be the policy instrument to encourage and drive increased generational renewal and remove the barriers that exist to the planned succession of farms across Northern Ireland. Any delay to the opening of the scheme will put at risk the budget that has been allocated to the programme and, indeed, risks delaying farm payments until late November, unfortunately. I will address Members' comments as best I can. The Chair of the AERA Committee, Mr Butler, made several points. We are bringing forward many aspects of the sustainable agriculture programme. Leaving the EU has brought lots of challenges for the UK, because England, Scotland, Wales and we here have to develop new farm support development programmes. That is not without its challenges. We see those here today not just in our debate on the details of the schemes but in how we work with stakeholders to bring those about. We will have many elements to deal with in Northern Ireland, such as supply chain schemes and a crisis framework. We will work to bring those forward, but I have been getting a sense of the priorities of stakeholders and the AERA Committee. I am hearing clearly that Farming for the Generations is one of the priorities, so we will move at pace on that scheme. Alongside that, it is important to bring forward environmental farming schemes such as Farming with Nature. We will progress those schemes, but we are working in a constrained resource environment in which to bring them forward. I think that we are all agreed that we want to ensure that funding is prioritised for active farmers: the message around that is clear. When it comes to the timescales for that, it is important to understand that there will be a lead-in, so, if people want to transfer their entitlements, they will be able to. There will be the ability to do that formally online from March, April and May of next year. I will write to the Committee to give it a bit more information on the transfer of those entitlements, so that it is clear on that. You also spoke a wee bit about the consideration of the SR, Chair. I will speak about that. We can do that better. We are conscious that the Committee has a scrutiny role, and I value that. We will look again at how we can improve the consideration and scrutiny of the SR. That is my commitment. We will do that with the Committee. The other aspect is the wider sustainable agriculture programme. It is a wide and complex programme. That is why it was important that we reached out to brief your party representatives on that. That is essential. I hope that that addresses some of the points that you raised. I thank you, Chair, and the Deputy Chair for your engagement on the matter over the past weeks. I hope that people can see that I have come from a genuine place to move the SR forward. I know that it is difficult and that there may be lessons to be learnt, but I hope that we can move forward and will be able to support farmers in Northern Ireland. On Justin McNulty's comments about the definitions of an "active farmer" and an "inactive farmer", I outlined those in the Chamber. That is important. The clear message that I got from the rally that I attended at the Eikon exhibition centre, which was organised by the UFU in response to the issues around inheritance tax — I will come to those — was that it is important that the scheme is prioritised for active farmers. It is not easy to do that, folks. It is complicated to take that measure, but it is important that we do so, and the SR will allow us to do that. On the issue of inheritance tax, I am glad to see the interest that the Farming for the Generations programme has attracted. My commitment is that we continue to roll out the pilot initiative and move towards rolling out the full initiative next year. The issue of inheritance tax makes that initiative really important in enabling people to plan for succession. That is what one element of Farming for the Generations will do. That is absolutely key, and I hope that I have provided reassurance on that. I am conscious of the Speaker's ruling on keeping to the subject matter. I will do that, but my understanding from farming unions is that their meeting today with Treasury on inheritance tax was disappointing. Treasury was not listening and was not willing to address farmers' concerns. I say again that the moves will have a disproportionate and detrimental impact on Northern Ireland and that they should not proceed. I will get back to the SR. The other issue that Justin McNulty raised was Lough Neagh and supporting environmental farming schemes. That is why we are bringing forward Farming with Nature. The SR will allow us to bring forward the transition scheme this year and wider schemes next year. That is critical, and it is important that we progress those at pace. Mr McNulty then pivoted from the SR a wee bit to the issue of rural development. The loss of the rural development programme arose as a result of Brexit, so Mr McNulty's ire in relation to that should not be guided towards me. I am working towards a new rural affairs policy in my Department. That is key, and we will consult on that later in the year. I appreciate Áine's comments and the engagement that I have had with Sinn Féin on the SR recently. I understand the concerns over the young farmers' payment and the regional reserve, and that is why I have given my commitment to bringing forward the Farming for the Generations initiative on the record today. We do not rule out having a financial incentive as part of that. As part of the co-design process, however, we have to work out exactly what will work and how we can have a business case that will support it. Value for money is key for me, because we are in difficult financial times and want to ensure that we maximise the benefit associated with any funding that we get to go towards farmers. We will actively work on that. I spoke to a senior official in my Department about the concern about a deficit in entitlements. We will explore that and actively monitor the issue. If any concerns arise from that, we will explore options to address the issue. I totally get the concerns around that, and we will continue to be alert to it. With regard to the comments from Michelle McIlveen around the issue, hopefully I have addressed some of the issues on scrutiny of the SR. Michelle has been consistent in relation to that issue, and I think they are genuine concerns over how we can scrutinise secondary legislation. As regards progressing this, the timescales are not what I would have desired. That arose as a result of losing the ring-fencing of the Budget on 30 October. As a result of that, we had to wait for the draft Budget to be agreed. Unfortunately, it was not agreed until just before Christmas. Once I had the certainty of the draft Budget, it allowed me to proceed with the SR. However, we will look at this and how we can improve the relationship with the Committee to enable scrutiny of the SR. It is important that we do that. On Farming for the Generations, hopefully I have outlined my commitment to ensuring that we will consider whether there can be a financial incentive as part of that. We will do that in engagement as part of that co-design process. I am also conscious of the issue around business cases. On the APSG, I put on record my thanks to the stakeholders who engaged with the APSG. They gave a lot of them time engaging with the Department. Their views are articulated openly and strongly in the APSG, and organisations are given the opportunity to go back to their own organisation to develop a view and bring it back. The process of developing the new schemes as a farm support development programme is not easy. Look, for example, at Wales and how they got it wrong in terms of engagement with stakeholders. Obviously, there are challenges going forward. People will have different views, and I respect those different views. What we try to do in APSG is come together collectively and move forward on a scheme so that, generally, people can understand and move towards consensus. Some element of my influence is that I devolve that to the APSG and allow them to have those views around those issues. It is important that we give APSG its place in developing agriculture policy. The issue of the transfer of entitlements was raised in an intervention from William: hopefully, I have addressed that. John raised the issue of the sustainable agriculture programme being about support for financial and environmental sustainability. Both of those go hand in hand. Lastly, Diana, in her contribution, welcomed the move towards three hectares. I have done all I can to listen to the concerns from the Committee and to balance that against the value-for-money requirement for me as Minister. I appreciate the concerns; they are genuinely held. Hopefully, we can agree the SR today, continue to engage with the Committee around future SRs and find a process to give a better, longer timescale for analysis of those.
1,744 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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