A leading Northern Ireland politician has called for Westminster to provide a separate support package for agriculture in the region.
Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer said: “The current arrangements which see the farm support monies taken from the block grant allocated by London to the North are not working.
“Farming in the North was funded separately for the five years following Brexit. This was on the back of a commitment given by Westminster on the back of the Brexit vote.
“Since 2021, the funding for agriculture has been taken from the block grant, with the farming sectors losing out significantly.”
According to the vice chair of Northern Ireland’s Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (AERA) Committee, farmers in Northern Ireland are losing out, in terms of the support available to them, relative to their counterparts south of the border.
He added: “Brexit was delivered by an English voting public.
“Westminster should take full account of this reality when agreeing the levels of support that should be made available to agriculture in the North.”
EFRA Committee meeting
McAleer made these comments in the wake of a meeting involving representatives of the Northern Ireland Assembly’s AERA grouping and their Westminster counterparts on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee.
The event took place on the second day of Balmoral Show.
McAleer continued: “We had a constructive engagement with the EFRA Committee members.
“I made the point that farming and food in the North continues to punch above its weight.
“A region that constitutes only 3% of the UK’s population is producing 8% of total food output.
“And this reality should be fully recognised by Westminster in terms of the support levels that are made available to businesses that must be allowed to invest comprehensively in their futures.”
The Sinn Féin representative also highlighted the enhanced role that the Grocery Code Regulator could be playing in Northern Ireland.
He said: “I thought initially that the establishment of the new agency would make a genuine difference in delivering fairer prices along the entire length of the farming and food chain.
“But this has turned out not to be the case. In the first instance, food processers are not included within the remit of the adjudicator.
“Moreover, only retail operations with an annual turnover of £1 million can be investigated. It’s a scenario that does not fairly reflect the structure of the North’s food retail sector.”