“It is bonkers for the Agricultural Wages Board to meet on 15 January, to decides to increase the minimum hourly wage for agricultural workers from £6.63 to £6.76 from 6 April when the National Minimum Wage has already been set at £6.70 since 1 October last year.”

This was the criticism of the Ulster Unionist Agriculture spokesperson Jo-Anne Dobson MLA, commenting she said: 

“This Board is not only an out of date, expensive and unnecessary quango, but going by its advice could very expensively land some agricultural employers in the courts.

"I have repeatedly called for the abolition of this board and do so once again in the hope that the Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill will realise that we have had a national minimum wage for eighteen years and that its continued existence is wasteful and unnecessary.

“The minimum wage legislation covers areas such as sick pay, holiday entitlement as well as rest breaks and can easily be applied to the agriculture sector.  There was once a need for a Wages Board, but that has now long gone.  We only need to look to England, Wales and Scotland which have moved with the times and abolished their equivalent Boards - yet in Northern Ireland successive Ministers have refused.

“The National Minimum Wage applies to all employees across the United Kingdom irrespective of the sector or industry they work in. This makes the continued existence of the Board a complete waste of money and a prime example of how DARD, far from cutting administration and red tape continues to waste resources and tax payers money.

"When Boards like this have run their course the Minister needs to show leadership and wind them up and I once again urge her to do so.”