The Department of Agriculture have revealed that less than 100 Countryside Management schemes will be signed this year, following questioning from Ulster Unionist MLA Jo-Anne Dobson.
Commenting Mrs Dobson said: “Last October farmers were angered by the announcement from the Minister that she would be drastically cutting the planned 1,300 agreements for 2013 to‘approximately 200.’
“Under questioning, officials have confirmed to me that this figure will now be ‘less than 100,’ despite the fact that 1,000 schemes were budgeted for.’
“No farm business could ever survive if it was run in such a shoddy way. This is farmers modulation money we are talking about which would have been put to far better use if it had stayed in their pockets, and not gone into the Department’s.
“But whilst the Minister has reduced the number of schemes by over 92%, and therefore the resulting environmental impact, unsurprisingly staffing levels within DARD remain unchanged.
The UUP Agriculture Spokesperson continued: “Officials told me that following the decision to cut the number of schemes, some staff had been ‘redeployed’ to mapping.
“Farmers know all too well the shambles of error-ridden maps being distributed to them recently and have every right to be outraged because we now know this happened at a time when staffing levels had actually been increased.
“When other Departments increase staffing levels it is with the aim of increasing efficiency, but in DARD’s case it all too often has the opposite effect – with the farmer left to reap the consequences.
“The Department have also told me, as they plan for the next Rural Development Programme they would aim to “simplify the provision to make it more straightforward for farmers to implement.”
“I am all for this, however their ‘aim’fell apart when they could not provide me with a single measure they would be using to achieve this – another example of DARD setting an aim and not having a clue how to achieve it.
“All they could tell me was they wanted to ‘strike a balance.’
“This from a Department which has never taken seriously the need to reduce the burden from farmers. It is not acceptable to put an aim on paper and leave it there.
“It is not acceptable to take money out of farmers Single Farm Payments and then mismanage it, to continue to fail on mapping and to rigidly fuel their own bureaucratic machinery without giving a single thought to the impact and expense this is heaping onto farmers and the industry.
“I and my Ulster Unionist Colleagues at the Assembly will continue to press the Department to once and for all get a grip on reducing their bloated bureaucracy.”