“How can farmers ever be assured that DARD will not commit the same mistakes in the future, causing even more disruption to them and their businesses, if officials do not tell us exactly what caused thousands of error-ridden maps to be issued?  Farmers deserve to know the full picture, they deserve much better!”

These were the words of Ulster Unionist Agriculture Spokesperson Jo-Anne Dobson MLA as she demanded ‘full disclosure’ from DARD of exactly what happened to cause 3,560 Farm Maps to be issued with a ’significant number of fields missing.’

She said: “It is simply not good enough for the Department to continue to describe this as a ‘technical problem,’ and that is why I am demanding that they reveal exactly what went on here.  They must not be allowed to continue to bungle from one error to another without being fully accountable for their mistakes. 

“They use the phrase ‘technical problem’ to brush over what happened, but this can cover a multitude of sins, and until we have the full facts farmers can never be completely sure that the Department will not make the same mistakes over and over again in the future. 

“The very least that we should expect is that when millions of pounds of our tax payers’ money has been spent on computer systems, DARD should be able to operate them without time-consuming and expensive errors.

Errors which have disrupted farm businesses and no doubt at considerable expense given the cost of issuing and posting these maps out to farmers. 

At this week’s Agriculture Committee at Stormont I suggested that we put pressure on the Department to fully disclose what ‘technical problems’ occurred.  In the interests of openness and transparency I am asking that DARD come forward with the full facts – we must know what ‘actually’ happened to allow these fields to effectively disappear from the farm maps. 

“In a letter to the Committee DARD have glibly said ‘By 22 February, this problem had been resolved and all maps affected had been fixed.’  Tell that to the farmers affected, for them the problems are far from resolved. 

“I, and my Ulster Unionist Colleagues at Stormont will continue to hold DARD to account to make sure every effort is made so that farmers no longer need to suffer at the hands of errors created by a Department more fixated on its own bureaucracy rather than helping farmers.”