Ulster Unionists Sandra Overend MLA and Jo-Anne Dobson MLA have criticised the Agriculture Minister and her Department for continued delays in the Control with Remote Sensing inspection process, which has resulted in a number of farmers still awaiting receipt of their Single Farm Payments, three months after they expected to paid.
Mid-Ulster MLA Mrs Overend, who is also the Ulster Unionist Party's Economy Spokesperson, said:
“Months after the issue of Control with Remote Sensing (CWRS) inspections causing hundreds of farmers to experience significant delays in receiving their Single Farm Payments originally came to the fore, I am still being contacted by constituents who continue to await payment. Whilst I understand that European Union regulations require inspections to be carried out on farms across Northern Ireland, the way the Department of Agriculture have handled the process has left much to be desired.
“I have written to the Minister on a number of occasions on behalf of constituents affected by these inspections and have been in regular touch with the Department of Agriculture’s Single Farm Payments branch since early January. For the Minister to continue to trot out the line ‘inspection cases generally will be processed much more quickly than in previous years’ really is no consolation to the farming families suffering from cash flow pressures that couldn’t have been planned.
“Initially the Department stated that they hoped to make payments to those affected by CWRS inspections by the end of February, but I am informed they now hope that these claims will now be paid out on by the end of April. This for payments that should have been made in December! I would urge Single Farm Payments branch to redouble their efforts to ensure that this timeline does not slip even further.
“Furthermore, a big issue for the farmers affected has been the lack of information received from the Department as to why their payments have been delayed and when they should expect payment. I am therefore very disappointed that rather than address this problem, the Minister instead states that in future years the Department of Agriculture do not intend to write to those farm businesses subject to inspection. I believe that a degree of understanding of the pressures this puts farmers under is needed, and will continue to press the Minister and her Department to ensure they learn the lessons of their failures of 2013, and improve outcomes for farmers in Mid-Ulster in the years ahead.”
Commenting Ulster Unionist Agriculture Spokesperson Jo-Anne Dobson MLA said:
"The Department appear happy to confirm that remote sensing works well in other European countries, but yet seem continually fail to find a way of doing it professionally in Northern Ireland. And all the time they are apparently content for local farmers to continue to pay for their own failings. This cannot go on.
"That is why last June at the Assembly my colleague on the Agriculture Committee Robin Swann MLA and myself proposed an amendment calling for the Minister to seek permission from the European Commission to make advanced Single Farm Payments to local farmers. Our motion was unanimously backed by MLA's, yet 8 months on farmers continue to suffer at the hands of the Departments failures.
"It is entirely unacceptable that cash flow is withheld from our farmers for up to nine months when in the Republic of Ireland payments are made to farmers up front.
"It is all the more important that, when neighbouring countries are taking steps, those with the power in Northern Ireland should do the right thing for our farmers. I and my Ulster Unionist colleagues at Stormont are standing up for farmers!"