Debate contribution: Nutrients Action Programme 2026-29: Opposition

Debate contribution by Ms Emma Sheerin on 10 June 2025.

MLA

Ms Emma Sheerin

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Nutrients Action Programme 2026-29: Opposition

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5001263

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Tá tú maith go leor

any longer than three minutes anyway. Like my colleagues, I support the motion. People will know that this is very close to my heart, coming from a farming family as I do. In the area that I represent, the issue of water quality is also very close to my heart. People may remember that I raised on several occasions in the Chamber, last year and the year before, the issues with the water that was coming from Lough Neagh, which affected many of my constituents. Therefore, I am clear that we need to address the issues of water quality. We know that the factors that have caused that problem were long in the making, with years of underinvestment and mismanagement of the lough. I attest very clearly that blaming a population that is already working in a volatile industry, and which is a very vulnerable group within society, is not the answer. As somebody who comes from a hill farm in the Sperrins, I can see, through generations, that our farmers have, on many occasions, had to respond quickly to different policy directives — often written by people with limited experience of agriculture or understanding of the factors that affect the average farm — and change their way of life on that basis. I speak specifically for hill farmers, who are always the last to benefit and who always work in the most difficult conditions. For example, some of the things that have been laid out in these proposals regarding the low-emission slurry-spreading equipment that will be mandatory by 2029 — as my colleagues have already pointed out — are not going to work on the average hill farm. It is not going to work on rough ground, it is not going to work in the sort of mountain area that I was reared in, and it is completely unaffordable for those farmers to have that cost put on them. We are talking about a group of people for which our way of food production has changed and moved to a more intensive type of farming to cater for what society has asked for. We have seen a reduction in the number of cattle on the hills, which meant them turning towards the only viable means of farming. That required compensation, but those farmers have lost their ANC payment, which was the buffer that allowed them to continue. I do not want to see that group of farmers being punished further, so I ask the Minister to consider what has been said, look towards more sustainable solutions, work with our farmers and listen to what they are telling us and give a clear direction that will —

— help everybody involved.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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