There has been no progress in delivering a proposed £70m support package to help NI farmers manage spiralling input costs.

Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots made a bid to Finance Minister Conor Murphy for the funding in March 2022, but the process has been stalled due to the absence of an NI Executive.

Despite approving a package to allow a £400 energy bill discount for NI households, there appears to have been little discussion between policymakers in Belfast and London about how new support for NI farmers could be progressed.

“In the absence of an Executive, the minister does not have the authority to make allocations to departments,” a Department of Finance spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

However, a spokesperson for DAERA confirmed department officials have been assessing how the proposed fund could be distributed if it is eventually approved.

“DAERA continues to monitor the impacts of the war in Ukraine and is considering those issues affecting the NI agri-food industry and how a potential £70m support package would be rolled out,” the spokesperson said.

Back in March, Minister Poots told MLAs at Stormont that Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) claims could potentially be used as a basis for allocating some of the fund to NI farmers.

With the proposed package equating to just under 25% of the total BPS budget in NI, it could equate to a significant income boost for all BPS recipients.

However, with milk and grain prices performing well at present, some farmers have argued that support should be targeted towards the beef and sheep sectors where prices have failed to keep up with unprecedented input costs.

Concerns

The DAERA spokesperson said Minister Poots raised concerns about high farm input costs across the UK with George Eustice, the former Secretary of State at DEFRA in London.

“He will be restating those concerns imminently to the new Secretary of State for DEFRA, Ranil Jayawardena,” the spokesperson said.