Ulster Unionist Agriculture Spokesperson Jo-Anne Dobson MLA has challenged DARD officials at this week’s Committee on their plans to ‘better regulate’ farmers, describing the Department as ‘having no interest what-so-ever in reducing the administrative burden and ingrained belief that they are never in the wrong.’

Mrs Dobson, who is the UUP Agriculture and Rural Development spokesperson said:

 “DARD have a woeful record when it comes to administration, both its own where it is spending £45.2 Million alone in this financial year, an increase of £5 Million from five years ago, as well as the burdensome and multiplying on-farm paperwork.

“Take just one example, farm inspections, where it is one rule for DARD and an entirely different rule book for farmers.  I asked officials about how farmers can challenge or change the findings of an inspection report before it goes to a formal review.  Unsurprisingly I was told that only on ‘very rare’ occasions additional information from the farmer ‘may’ result in a breach being ‘reassessed’ and overturned.

“Given that the same inspector would be responsible for ‘reassessing’ their own original decision I would imagine it to be an extremely rare occurrence for them to admit that they were wrong in the first place.  However as this this information is not recorded by DARD we may never know.

“This is the same Department which records absolutely everything about farmers yet for some reason does not record the number of breaches which have been removed as a result of a ‘reassessment’ by the inspector of their original decision.

“We met officials at committee to discuss their plans for so-called ‘better regulations,’ yet, choosing just one simple example, they don’t think it’s important enough to record information on when they get it wrong.  I have to ask what incentive is there for an inspector to show fairness when their incorrectly made decisions are never recorded.

“I asked the officials for a review of the entire process and indeed following questioning they agreed that a review would be ‘useful’ – however if DARD is ever to be serious about reducing the burden of administration on farmers they need to do more than talk about it, they need to act.

“Finally, to hear a DARD official say, as they did during the meeting, that they have ‘no interest in Gold Plating’ and that ‘we will relax rules wherever we can’ is not, and never has been, the reality on the farmyard.  While they may talk about so-called ‘better regulation,’ they need to start practicing what they preach."