DAERA officials are searching for spare cash within the department which could be used to top-up a coronavirus aid package for NI agriculture.Speaking at Stormont, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots said that he was continuing to press the NI Executive to make funds available for local farmers.
DAERA officials are searching for spare cash within the department which could be used to top-up a coronavirus aid package for NI agriculture.
Speaking at Stormont, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots said that he was continuing to press the NI Executive to make funds available for local farmers.
“If the Executive are willing to do something, I am willing to search about the department and see what we can do to assist that as well. I won’t be going to the Executive asking them to do it all,” he said.
We aren’t a department with many hundreds of millions, so what we will be able to produce will be helpful
In a question session, Sinn Féin MLA Philip McGuigan asked the Minister why available funds from within DAERA have not been brought forward already.
“We aren’t a department with many hundreds of millions, so what we will be able to produce will be helpful, but it is not going to resolve the issues,” Minister Poots responded.
Critical
The DUP MLA was critical of the UK government’s response to the impact of COVID-19 on the agri food industry.
“While there is still potential, it is proving quite difficult to get money out of the Chancellor for farming,” he said.
A similar assessment was given of the European Commission’s response to the pandemic, although Minister Poots acknowledged that a Private Storage Aid scheme has been made available.
“It’s an €80m scheme for all of the EU, they didn’t exactly break the bank,” he said.
The scheme is open from 7 May to 30 June, however, the UK exceeded its allocation of 4,499t of cheese on the first day.
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