“Every penny” of EU Common Agricultural Policy funding should be “spent on supporting farmers and agri-food”, according to NI Conservatives’ prospective European candidate, Mark Brotherston.
Mark made his comments after the minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle O’Neill, decided that almost €140 million of Northern Ireland’s CAP allocation should be reassigned from Single Farm Payments, which go directly to farmers, to ‘rural development’ funding.
“DARD are switching the money from so called pillar 1 CAP payments to pillar 2, which essentially means less cash goes straight to farmers”, Mark explained. “That’s something we’re very concerned about. Only last year Michelle O’Neill approved spending rural development funds on refurbishing an IRA monument in south Armagh. How can we trust the agriculture minister to ensure that this latest money is used sensibly, after such a flagrant abuse of EU cash?”
“The Northern Ireland Rural Development budget does cover some schemes which are vital to farmers, like supporting the suckler cow industry. However, there can be no question of allowing this money to be moved between pillars, just to cover a gap elsewhere. Every single penny should be benefiting farmers and the agri-food industry. DARD must be absolutely clear about how these funds are to be spent, because, frankly, there is very little trust that the minister will not allow it to be diverted away from farmers and towards frivolous or even divisive projects.”