Debate contribution: The draft Farming with Nature Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025
Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on .
- MLA
- Mr Andrew Muir
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 19 May 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- The draft Farming with Nature Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4968863
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I beg to move
Thank you very much, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for the opportunity to propose a motion on what is almost the last item of Assembly business for today. Hopefully, the tone of this debate will be a bit more conciliatory than that of the previous debate. The Farming with Nature Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025 give my Department the legal powers to introduce the Farming with Nature package. The Farming with Nature package is one of the key priorities within the Department's new sustainable agriculture programme. My ambition for the Farming with Nature package is to scale up nature-friendly farming, with all farmers being rewarded for delivering environmental public goods alongside important food production. In addition, the package aims to contribute to the delivery of many of DAERA's strategic environmental outcomes by supporting farmers and land managers to make substantial contributions to environmental improvements and sustainability. The Farming with Nature package is being developed through a co-design and engagement process, including the agricultural policy stakeholder group (APSG) and the Farming with Nature group, which comprise key agriculture and environment stakeholders. It is proposed that the Farming with Nature package will be introduced using a phased approach. The first phase will be the Farming with Nature transition scheme, which is planned to launch in June 2025. The Farming with Nature transition scheme aims to support biodiversity on farms by funding a range of environmental actions, including hedgerow planting, creating and repairing buffer strips, farmland tree planting, and more. It will underpin the overall Farming with Nature package and allow farmers to implement actions that will deliver additional habitats, protect watercourses, provide green infrastructure for nature corridors and increase carbon sequestration. The second phase is the Farming with Nature landscapes projects. It will allow a group of farmers to collaborate and develop innovative approaches to restore nature at a landscape scale in Northern Ireland. Further phases are planned, initially focusing on priority habitats. The Farming with Nature Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025 are being introduced to make technical amendments to assimilated direct legislation regulation 1305/2013. The regulations amend article 28(5) to allow the Farming with Nature transition scheme to operate on a yearly basis, rather than seeking five- or seven-year commitments. In practice, that means that farmers can apply annually to carry out environmental improvements. The amendment of article 28(10) will allow the Department to set out the conditions of the scheme while maintaining the vires that allow the current environmental farming scheme agreements to operate. The regulations also amend article 35(8) to enable the Farming with Nature landscape projects to operate for a minimum of one year, and article 35(10) will be amended to allow for farmer groups to be established and conditions set as part of the intended design of the landscape projects scheme. That concludes my overview of the Farming with Nature Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025. I am happy to answer any questions that are raised during the debate in my closing remarks.
498 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.02 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.58 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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