During a debate in Stormont on the second stage of the Rural Needs Bill North Antrim TUV MLA, Jim Allister, hit out at the NI Environment Agency’s attitude to poultry farmers in his constituency and called for the agency to be made subject to the Bill.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
“No one will accuse the sponsor of this Bill of cluttering it with detail because there is a great dearth in that regard. Where that concerns me most is in respect of the reach of the Bill. As the Bill stands, it will apply only to Departments and councils and might never apply to anyone else. With so much policy delivered through arm’s-length bodies, that is a fundamental flaw and mistake, as it is often through those bodies that the detrimental decisions of which rural dwellers complain are taken. Let me give some examples. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency is, in my experience, one of the most anti-rural and anti-rural dweller operatives in Northern Ireland. Yet, unless and until the Minister gets round to putting it on a list, it will be exempt from the statutory requirement to have regard to rural needs.
“In my constituency of North Antrim, we have a significant concentration of the poultry industry, which is connected with the historical existence of O’Kane and Moy Park. In recent months, many affected farmers have come to see me in despair because the planning applications that they have made to extend their poultry houses or to replace them with new up-to-date poultry houses are being blocked by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. It has come up with a concern that, because of the prevailing wind direction, or some other contention, there is too much of an ammonia influence on a derelict bog in the middle of my constituency. For that reason, go-ahead farmers who are trying to provide for themselves and their families are being trumped by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency’s total disregard for rural needs.
“I would very much like to see the Northern Ireland Environment Agency subject to a statutory duty to have regard to the social and economic needs of persons in rural areas. That would put a brake on the folly that it is pursuing in respect of many farmers in rural constituencies. It is a disappointment to me that, in the Bill, that statutory duty is not forthwith extended to bodies such as the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Education Authority. Other Members spoke of matters educational; why are they, too, not subject to that duty from the beginning? It would be very easily done. All you have to do is put in a schedule, as you see in much legislation, that is a list of the public bodies to which the legislation applies. That Minister would have an enabling power, by secondary legislation, to amend that list, to take from it or add to it, but they would be there from the outset rather than bringing in legislation that applies to Departments but not to their arm’s-length bodies and councils, however that circumvents the application of the legislation for as long as we think appropriate for the bodies that really matter.
“I appeal to the House to address that matter so that the promise that is possible by applying a statutory duty in respect to rural needs and rural proofing might actually be delivered. It will only be delivered if you include in the Bill the deliverers of services to the rural community.
“The Minister and the Committee need to look with great sympathy at the idea of activating the Bill at the highest possible level, at the earliest possible opportunity, and with the greatest possible effect on rural dwellers. That can be done by making sure that bodies such as the Northern Ireland Environment Agency are, as they should be, subject to a statutory duty to consider and have due regard to rural needs rather than, as at the moment, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency belligerently sets itself up to suppress and override rural needs. I trust that that point will be taken on board.”