Although Defra Secretary Michael Gove’s vision for a “Green Brexit” has proved popular with many in the environmental lobby, Patrick Casement from NI Environment link has expressed scepticism of the government’s recently published 25-year plan for the environment.

Speaking at an Ulster Farmers’ Union meeting in Limavady earlier this week, Casement said: “A few years ago, Michael Gove was calling for abolition of the birds and habitats directive and now suddenly he is greener than green."

"Everything they have produced so far is strong on rhetoric and very weak on detail,” he said at the UFU meeting on Monday.

On post-Brexit agricultural policy in the UK, Casement told UFU members that the process of designing environmental management measures should involve discussion with individual farmers.

“This is not necessarily good news for the department because it is inevitably going to be labour-intensive and difficult to deliver because you have to engage face-to-face with farmers,” he said.

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Environmentalist sceptical of 'Green Brexit' plans

The chair of the umbrella group for environmental organisations in Northern Ireland has said that the UK government's Green Brexit plans are "weak on detail".