Debate contribution: UFU: DAERA Vote of No Confidence

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on 3 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Andrew Muir

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

3 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Questions for Urgent Oral Answer

Heading

UFU: DAERA Vote of No Confidence

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5213509

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Last Thursday, I was disappointed to learn of the vote taken by the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU). I am proud of our farm families and the role that they play, and I am proud of the international reputation that we rightly enjoy for the quality of the food produced here, and I am pleased to champion that on many fronts. My record of standing up for our farm families, whether on inheritance tax or on securing continued ring-fenced funding for agriculture, is clear. Good leadership is not defined by running away from challenges; rather, it is defined by identifying and facing up to them. Here, in Northern Ireland, we face some very significant challenges, partly as a result of decisions taken by those who came before me. I fully agree with the Ulster Farmers' Union that previous policies in relation to bovine TB failed Northern Ireland; so too have our past approaches to addressing biodiversity and delivering the high standards of water quality and air quality that citizens rightly expect. Like others in these islands, we face new challenges around adapting to climate change that require us to reduce carbon emissions; a particular challenge, given agriculture and the role that it plays. I am committed to having a just transition for agriculture and ensuring a successful future for farming, whilst restoring our environment, improving air and water quality, and driving down rates of TB. That requires leadership. That does not involve backing away from inconvenient truths. It requires leadership that ensures that the law is complied with and that policy is shaped by evidence, not rhetoric. It requires courage, not timidity. It also requires all of us to work together. As Minister, my door is always open, and it will continue to be so. I have scheduled a meeting with the UFU president and chief executive in my office tomorrow. I look forward to seeing them both. I will outline my real concern about the motion: it is a motion of no confidence in my Department. I am immensely proud of the officials with whom I am privileged to work, and I stand full-square in support of them.

Naomi Long is a colleague; she is a friend; and she is the Justice Minister. Both Naomi and I work hard for all the citizens of Northern Ireland. If you think that I am going somewhere, Mr Gaston, you have another thing coming. I have a job of work to do, and I do it across the whole remit of the Department: the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. If we are talking about what your party has delivered for farmers, you delivered one of the biggest negative impacts to farming in Northern Ireland, which was Brexit. Brexit has destroyed the UK economy, and it was one of the biggest betrayals of the people of Northern Ireland. You should own up and take responsibility for that.

What I find strange about some of the questions from the DUP around this is that a lot of the policy that I am delivering is policy from my predecessor. The climate change legislation was passed by a DUP AERA Minister. It is farming policy that was initiated by a DUP AERA Minister. I am delivering on pledges previously made, and I believe in delivering on those. Climate change is one of the biggest threats to farming in Northern Ireland, and I am committed to supporting farmers on that journey on the road ahead.

We are delivering significant benefits for farming in Northern Ireland. I was the only Minister in the UK to secure ring-fenced funding of over £300 million for agriculture, agri-environment, fisheries and rural development. I also secured a just transition fund for agriculture. I am very conscious of the immense challenges arising from Brexit, which others championed. I engaged with the UK Government, and we agreed a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) veterinary agreement and are now negotiating the details around that. We also got a blueprint agreed with all the stakeholders around the table on tackling the significant issue of TB. I have been standing firmly against the proposed changes on inheritance tax. We are delivering change on the ground. I do not underestimate the challenges that we face. Perhaps people need to be a bit more honest in facing people with regard to the issues and the decisions that need to be taken.

I will continue to engage, and I am at a meeting tomorrow. Today, I met farmers from the Nature Friendly Farming Network, and I will continue to engage with all people. It is important that we listen and engage and that we face up to and work together on these issues. I am committed to doing that. If anyone were to read the first-day brief that I got when I became Minister, they would see that I inherited a complete and utter mess — a mess that was the result of indecision and wrong decisions. If they were to read the reports from the Office for Environmental Protection, they would see that the situation that I inherited was that we were acting unlawfully on ammonia, we had a failed judicial review in relation to bovine TB and we had all the problems coming from Brexit. I am working through those issues, and I am guided by making sure that we are doing that through respect for science, evidence and the law. I do not underestimate the challenges that have faced the farming community in the past number of years. They are significant, and they have been compounded by the changes to inheritance tax. I will continue to work night and day to work through those issues. They are significant issues, and I look across the rest of the UK on the issues that they are facing. I will work with people on those.

The situation on ammonia is clear. If people read the report from the Office for Environmental Protection, they will see that it sets out the situation that we are in due to the fact that we were acting unlawfully. I have to find a way forward so that we can reduce ammonia emissions and allow replacement sheds. I am keen to do that. We consulted on the ammonia strategy, we are considering the responses to it and we will set out a way forward. They are significant challenges, because I have to stay on the right side of the law, but I also want to deliver for the farming community in Northern Ireland. They are difficult challenges. It is not lost on me that Agriculture was the last Department that any political party wanted. People shied away from the difficult issues. I face up to them. I want to reiterate one thing: criticise me all you want, but I take great exception to the passing of a motion of no confidence in my Department. There are excellent officials with whom I am privileged to work. I am really impressed by their professionalism and their commitment to the job. Do not criticise them. That is wrong.

I will continue to engage on the issue. In my job as Minister, I see people playing politics with issues and looking for wedge issues because of their own drop in the polls. They do not understand the importance of respecting the difficult decisions that I face, and other political parties are desperate to divide and prevent us from working. I respect the Ulster Farmers' Union. I have FOI requests coming in and reports saying that I meet it too often. There has been criticism that there is too much consultation and too many meetings. I am engaging and being honest about the issues, and I will work through them.

My job as Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs is to serve everyone in Northern Ireland. I respect the Ulster Farmers' Union. It is a representative lobby group. I will continue to engage with it, but I have to serve everyone in Northern Ireland. I have to get us to a position where we deliver a resilient and thriving future for agriculture while improving our environment. It is damn hard, folks. The lough has been green for the past three years. Come on. People need to focus on delivering for everyone in Northern Ireland. I am happy to take criticism — that is fine — but let us try to work together, because people are looking at this place and, frankly, they are despairing.

The future is clear for us. We see the situation that is in front of us. For people to refer to peer-reviewed science as "magical figures" and make other comments is very dangerous. We have to respect scientists and the evidence that is in front of us and work together on it. I am committed to doing that. Over the past number of days, many farmers across Northern Ireland have contacted me to say this: we know that it is a tough job, but continue the engagement and let us work together. That is what I am committed to doing.

I will continue to do that. I will go to the Committee, engage with people and be open around the issues. We all know the challenges. The difference is that I am just being honest about them.

Whilst some want to engage in denial and scepticism or ignore the reality of it, the financial markets will look at farming and the challenges that it faces by way of nature, biodiversity and climate change and the need for us to take action on it. That is what I hear from farmers daily. That is why we are investing in delivering that resilience for farming. Without a thriving environment and resilient nature and biodiversity, farming does not have a future. I want to nail some of the incorrect stories that have been told. The vast majority of farmers are doing just that. The small minority on social media do not speak for all farmers in Northern Ireland; they speak for themselves.

I am happy to consider any invitations, but I engage with farmers daily. I did it today; I am doing it tomorrow; and I will continue to do it. I will engage with the Ulster Farmers' Union and others through structured groups, and it is important that I do so.

There are significant ethical issues with how we make policy in Northern Ireland. We should ensure that we listen to different views, but we should base our decisions on the science and evidence not on the views of any particular group. That is something that I am keen to do, and it is important that I do it. We have a duty to serve everyone and to listen to different voices. That is something that I have been keen to do as Minister. We may not agree, but it is important to listen and take this seriously. As Minister, I will continue to do that.

We have the DUP talking about embarrassment. It is a party that does not even know what shame is.

The inability to take difficult decisions goes to the heart of the problem with these institutions. We debate issues, but people scatter when we talk about the difficult decisions. I have been open about the challenges that we have. I have engaged with everyone on those challenges and will continue to do so, but I will not be dishonest about them and my desire to work through them. We cannot just turn a blind eye or issue statements that are not followed up with action.

The first-day brief that I got as Minister sets that out, if people care to look at it. If the DUP had not downed tools and walked away for two years because the going got tough, we would have had primary legislation in place for a TB intervention; we would have resolved the ammonia situation; we would have been able to make much more progress on climate change and had a climate action plan in place; and we would have been able to deliver a just transition fund for agriculture at a much earlier stage. There have been multiple impacts as a result of one party deciding that it did not want to go to work.

I will continue to respond to those voices, as I have done since I became Minister. However, I also have a duty to respond to everyone in Northern Ireland, and I take that duty seriously as well.

2,086 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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