Attempts by Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir to reserve a decision by his predecessor, Edwin Poots, and remove a 15% penalty cap for repeated negligent breaches of cross-compliance rules, have finally hit a dead end.

Following a debate in the Stormont Assembly chamber on Tuesday, MLAs from the other main parties voted to annul proposed legislation that would have reinstated the penalty regime that existed prior to the Poots change in 2022.

Under that previous regime, a farmer with repeated negligent breaches of the rules ran the risk that it would be deemed as intentional, thereby potentially attracting much higher penalties of up to 100% of farm payments.

While the change made in 2022 has stimulated considerable debate, it actually impacts very few farmers – in 2023, just 35 farms had penalties capped at 15% and just three of these cases related to the protection of waterways.

Despite the low numbers and the fact that members of the Stormont Agriculture committee had twice voted down proposed legislation, Minister Muir took the issue to the full Assembly on Tuesday.

He argued that by applying a 15% cap, NI is an outlier when compared to EU and UK counterparts.

“Farmers who have their penalties capped at 15% have breached the same specific requirement at least three times within three years. Some of those breaches, including water pollution, are of high-level severity. I do not think that that is fair to the public or the vast majority of our farmers who play by the rules,” he said.

However, all the other main parties took an opposing view.

“We feel that it is unfair to apply to minor breaches the same penalties as are applied for repeated and intentional non-compliance. We must have a system that differentiates clearly between minor and major infractions,” said Declan McAleer, the deputy chair of the Agriculture committee.

In the end all MLAs, except those from the Alliance Party and People Before Profit, voted to annul the proposed legislation.