The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs's (DAERA) resource budget has been cut by £5.9m (€6.6m) to £192m (€215m) for the 2017/18 financial year under the emergency budget brought forward NI Secretary of State James Brokenshire on Monday. Across government departments in NI, DAERA received the largest cut with a 3% reduction in real terms.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs's (DAERA) resource budget has been cut by £5.9m (€6.6m) to £192m (€215m) for the 2017/18 financial year under the emergency budget brought forward NI Secretary of State James Brokenshire on Monday.
Across government departments in NI, DAERA received the largest cut with a 3% reduction in real terms.
Only two other departments received cuts, with the Department of Justice and Department for the Economy’s bottom lines reducing by 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively.
DAERA’s 3% budget reduction in 2017/18 follows on from a series of significant cuts since 2010. However, a department spokesperson said this week that it would have no effect on existing programmes or services and would not lead to further reductions in staff.
“This has mainly arisen from the planned completion of existing programmes and the transfer of budgets to other departments,” the spokesperson said.
Bovine TB
A significant issue adding to budgetary pressure within DAERA is the rise in compensation costs for bovine TB reactor animals, with the numbers of reactors in the first eight months of 2017 up 45% on 2016 figures, to 10,152.
The DAERA spokesperson said that TB compensation in NI is estimated to cost £24m (€26.9m) this financial year. An internal review is ongoing within DAERA to assess if bids for additional funding will need to be made to the Department of Finance.
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