Oliver McMullan
East Antrim · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“I thank the junior Minister for his answers so far. I draw his attention to paragraph 11 on the threats to ecosystems from invasive non-native species. I will bring the question of Lough Foyle into this and the unregulated fishing practices of fishermen bringing in seed mussels.”
“I am pleased to see that there was a discussion about farm safety at the meeting. Did Ministers give consideration to making IT packages more available to the farming community? I am looking at the farm business scheme that has just been launched here.”
“I thank the Minister for his answers so far. Can you, Minister, give me your Department's assessment of the harm that the culture of paramilitary activity and domination in parts of Carrick and Larne is having on the educational attainment of young people and children?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. The Member made a good point when he mentioned the Wild Atlantic Way. I ask the Minister to look at that. We need to bring it up here. The Atlantic does not stop at the border; the Wild Atlantic Way should not stop at the border either.”
“I thank the Minister for his answers so far. Minister, you are aware that, increasingly, there is a two-tier system in farming, with hill farming and lowland farming. Can you guarantee to the House that any strategy that is brought out will not affect the hill farmer and his unique way of farming?”
“Were there any talks at your meeting regarding the territorial powers of the Loughs Agency, with regard to the British Government and Irish Government giving it powers to license aquaculture on the Lough?”
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“No, I will not. Your party did not give way to anybody. She secured over £600 million for the rural development programme. I have to say that, within the Budget, I recognise that the A5 and A6 road schemes represent major infrastructure that will help to grow the economy and the farming industry. This could all lead to an all-Ireland economy. Indeed, I have to mention the A8, which Minister McIlveen opened recently. That will be a big help too because of the volume of agricultural exports that leaves Larne harbour. <BR /> <BR />One of the major things that the Minister did was to introduce, through her Department and as part of the Programme for Government, the tackling rural poverty and social isolation (TRPSI) programme. That was also mentioned in the rural White Paper, and it was a big thing for rural areas.”
“She has secured over £600 million for the —”
“During negotiations on the new CAP programme, Minister O'Neill once again listened to the farming industry. She secured recognition for the hill farmer and has ensured that, in future, there will be equality between the hill farmer and the lowland farmer. There will be no two-tier system in farming. <BR /> <BR />The recent crisis in the dairy industry saw the Minister stand with the industry. She took representatives of the industry with her to London and Brussels. Over there, she was the only Minister who got an audience with the Commissioner. She has shown that she has an open-door policy. The industry was accommodated when it looked for a meeting, and she secured some sort of recognition for them. She got £5 million for them.”
“It was recognised that a lot of the applications done by hand contained quite a lot of mistakes such as dual fields etc. Online applications help to do away with a lot of those mistakes.”
“<BR /> <BR />Single farm payments, as has already been said by the Chair of the Committee, are the lifeblood of the farming industry, and without them farm businesses and, indeed, community businesses that supply farms, would simply cease trading. The Minister inaugurated public meetings across the Six Counties in order to listen to farmers; she went out and listened to the farming industry and their families, and she promised them that she would speed up payments. Now, we have seen 95% of farmers paid their single farm payment by Christmas. The payments were in their banks, including, as the Chair said, nearly 1,700 cases where there had been inspections. This is all part of the Minister's campaign to have more applications completed online.”
“Go raibh maith agat. First of all, I congratulate the Minister on his new role and wish him well. I am speaking on the Budget today as the party's spokesperson on agriculture. Having looked through the Budget and the papers, I want to commend the Agriculture Minister, Michelle O'Neill. She has, in this mandate, been unafraid to meet head-on the problems that needed to be tackled. One of the first projects that the Minister took on was the decentralisation of DARD's headquarters to Ballykelly. Phase one will be in 2017, with the rest in 2020. She was the first Minister to relocate an entire Department. We will also see the relocation of the fisheries department to south Down, the Forest Service to Fermanagh, and the Rivers Agency to the Loughry Campus.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Minister, how much of the backlog of the minor works programme will this be able to reduce?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her answers so far. Will she assure the House that, if the musical instruments for bands scheme is reinstated, funding will be distributed equally across all musical forms?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her comprehensive answer. Has there been any progress in gaining export approval for other agrifood produce to China?”
“<BR /> <BR />I agree with everything that is in the Bill and hope that it has a safe passage.”
“I will be very brief, and I do not intend to go through the clauses. The Bill will protect inland fisheries and the aquatic environment; it will protect threatened species of fish and crustaceans such as lobster, crab and shrimp. Protecting those species will help fish stocks to grow and will help to guarantee the livelihood of our fishing industry. <BR /> <BR />I thank the Minister for the way in which she has worked with the ARD Committee, especially on clause 6. I hope that the Assembly looks at the Bill and lets it go through, because it is something that we need. The industry is crying out for change, and a lot of the changes that it seeks are in the Bill. The Bill will bring legislation here in line with legislation in others parts of these islands.”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her answers so far. Minister, now that the water level is going down, it is important that insurance claims are dealt with quickly. Can I get an assurance from you that you will liaise with the insurance companies, including the farmers' union, to ensure that no red tape is involved and claims are paid quickly to the people who need the money to put things back?”
“I thank the Minister for that comprehensive reply. Minister, you say that the initial roll-out will be in 2018. Are we looking at the programme being rolled out in 2018, or will it be phased in? I would like to know a time frame for implementation so that the public will know exactly when it is going to happen.”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. Does she believe that, by doing away with the 50% relief for empty business premises, there would be a downward pressure on rents charged by landlords?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for her statement this afternoon. In the last season, some fishermen expressed concerns about some of the fishing efforts. Can she tell us whether those concerns have been resolved?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her statement. Minister, will the legislation be similar to the Sign Language Act in Scotland?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for his answers. Will he outline which unions, if any, have responded to his proposals?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for her statement. Who is responsible for the subregional programme: DCAL or the IFA?”
“Go raibh maith agat. How can DCAL help the boxing clubs that will not receive boxing investment programme funding at this stage?”
“I thank the Minister for her answer. What funding is available for farmers who are keen to participate in these groups?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the Minister's statement to announce this consultation. Minister, will you ensure that the strategy is well embedded in the 11 new super-councils?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the Minister's statement. First, I welcome the increase for DCAL. As for agriculture, I welcome the TB compensation allocation that has been made to DARD, but does the Minister agree that, in the context of the ongoing work of the TB strategic partnership group on the wildlife issue, the Executive should now review the effectiveness of the compensation scheme that is in place to tackle TB?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for her answers to date. Will she outline some of the inescapable pressures in her Department?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. Does he agree that services need to be rural proofed now more than ever to ensure that the right facilities go into rural areas?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her answers. What action has been taken to assist farmers' compliance with the regulations?”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for his answer. Does he agree that, where disclosure is prevented, there is the probability of an attempt to pervert the course of justice by covering up the criminal activity that was endemic due to the policy of collusion?”
“I thank the Member for giving way. Does he agree that east Antrim has the highest figures for prostate cancer and that Causeway Coast and Glens, the council area on the other side of the coast, has one of the highest figures for pancreatic cancer?”
“Total shame on you. I support the motion.”
“Don't ever hold your head up in public again and say that you are working for the people if the one thing that you cannot stand to do is to come in here today and show leadership to the people who are suffering from one of the worst diseases that they could have.”
“I believe that there are people in the DUP who do not believe in the hokey-cokey kind of politics that the party is pursuing today. It may be something that you can sit and smile about, but I hope to God that the disease never hits your door, because you will not smile then, and you will hope that you have somebody there who will give direction and cut the waiting lists. <BR /> <BR />I work day and daily with people in my constituency of East Antrim to try to get them in after being referred by their GP, yet they are still waiting after six months. I am working to try to get their test results out after they have had their referral. That is going on, and it would break your heart. However, we are still seeing this depraved kind of politics from the party opposite. It is playing politics with people's lives. Shame on you.”
“The mental strain on, and suffering of, those patients went on as they waited to know. They asked, "Do I or do I not have cancer? If I do have cancer, what treatment am I going to get? Am I going to get radiotherapy or chemotherapy or have an operation?" All that suffering is going on. <BR /> <BR />What we see now is not only politically corrupt but morally corrupt. If those people have any sense of morals at all, and some of them tell us that they are deeply religious, where are those morals and where is that religion today, when people out there are suffering and dying? Families are being decimated by the disease, and there is no one there to give leadership. If you cannot give leadership, step aside and let somebody else take the seat.”
“I state that as a cancer patient myself. I am going through a five-year programme of treatment for my cancer. I know from my first-hand experience of seeing people's suffering when I go into the waiting room that those people are looking for hope. Families are there of husbands, mothers, brothers and sisters who are all getting treated. <BR /> <BR />While we do not have a Minister at his desk to give direction, waiting lists are getting longer. In some cases, people are waiting up to a year and a half after getting a referral from their GP. Consultants then have to go through the list and prioritise people. <BR /> <BR />We had the case in the Causeway Hospital last year in which biopsy results were sitting in the hospital but there were no consultants to give them out to patients.”
“<BR /> <BR />Whilst that suffering goes on day and daily, we have people here playing footsie with the whole thing because of their political aspirations. This is not what the public wants. The public wants you to be sitting here doing something. This is not a political issue: it is a human issue.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. That may be so. It is something that I will come to in a moment. <BR /> <BR />I say to the Minister to take his ministerial car and go to the City Hospital any day of the week. Go into the waiting room, where people from all over the Six Counties are in for treatment. There are people from Fermanagh, Enniskillen and all round who have to stay in Belfast during the week from Monday to Friday and wait for their half-hour treatment every day. They have to stay in Belfast for the rest of the day and go home on a Friday. Those people are sitting up there every week, and their families are at home. Children of four or five years of age are being wheeled in in wheelchairs for treatment. The elderly are coming in in wheelchairs. It would break your heart to see some of the people there.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. I thank the Members who brought this motion to the House today. I am coming at this from the perspective of the human side of cancer and the suffering that it brings to the individual, their family and their friends. <BR /> <BR />Cancer is one of the worst diseases to hit this community. It does not know any barriers at all. It affects the young and the old. It affects everybody, male and female. Whilst we should be doing more to try to stem the tide of this disease, we now have a Minister who is not only not at his desk but not even here. I hope that when he looks at this on television, he is sitting at his desk watching the debate and that, in a way, he feels happy with himself that, as he has already stated publicly, he is at his desk every day doing his job.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. I agree with what he says. Does he agree that one of the main problems is DEFRA and its inability to grasp the situation in the farming industry here? Day by day, it is showing itself to be more of a hindrance than a help to our agriculture industry. Go raibh maith agat.”
“— because some of the other parties' milking parlours are very empty today.”
“<BR /> <BR />All I can really say is that, when I look round the Floor today, some of the parties and all the Members who are sitting here, who lecture my party for what it is doing and what it has not been doing, according to them, should look to themselves —”
“<BR /> <BR />She has liaised with all the MEPs, her opposite number in Scotland and Wales and with Minister Coveney in the South. As I said, she has also taken the case directly into Europe. So, this Minister has proved that she is there for the farmer; she is pushing the case forward. We have got to get the intervention level for milk up. The last time that was done, as the Minister has said time and again, it put a floor on the market price and allowed it to recover. At present, Europe is not doing that. We have got money coming in but the problem now is how we are going to spend it and where it will go. By the time that DEFRA sends the money here, there will not be a terrible lot to put round, so we will have to see how we can best place that in the industry without leaving out other parts of the agriculture business.”
“The one thing that all farmers, groups, delegations and even protesters outside have said is that they want to see the political parties here unite in taking the industry forward, and not snipe at each other to score cheap political points. As well as all the meetings she has had, the Minister has been working with the industry, the political stakeholders, particularly in relation to the dairy sector, for more than a year. She has also raised the plight of other parts of the farming industry. She has engaged more regularly with Liz Truss to emphasise circumstances here. She has also been pushing for a review of the intervention threshold rate, which, I believe, was last visited in 2003 and has not been changed since.”
“She has spoken to the producers. She has spoken to everybody she needs to. When nobody else could, she managed to get a meeting with Commissioner Hogan to make the case for the farmer here.”
“<BR /> <BR />We do not have the same large domestic market for our milk as other EU countries, including Britain, so our producer price is closely linked to the global commodities market. From day one of the present crisis, Minister O'Neill has been lobbying DEFRA to make it understand that the problem is here. That is one of the problems facing us: DEFRA did not see a crisis in the industry here. That made the lobbying even harder. That begs a question about DEFRA — to my mind, it is more of a hindrance than a help to the farming industry here, and that makes a stronger case for having an all-Ireland basis for the promotion of our farming products. <BR /> <BR />Minister O'Neill also went to Europe to lobby Commissioner Hogan. She has taken delegations of people from groups here to Europe. She has spoken to the banks.”
“Go raibh maith agat. The present crisis in the dairy trade is another blow to our agriculture industry. We have seen crisis in the sheep trade, the beef trade, the pork trade and now dairy. The Russian ban on our agricultural products has added greatly to this. The Chinese are trying to bolster their own domestic market rather than buy milk from Europe, and we now have a glut of milk. <BR /> <BR />We have special circumstances here, and our Minister has made that very clear to DEFRA in London. We face a unique and extreme set of circumstances. The dairy sector in the North is directly exposed to the commodity markets and vulnerable to currency exposure. At the present time, the difference between euro and sterling means something in the region of 4p and 5p a litre. That gives you an idea of how volatile it is.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. You criticised the Minister by saying that you do not take her word for what she is doing. Perhaps you could tell me what your Minister is doing about the crisis.”
“Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for her answers. Can she tell us, given the previous delays in publishing the annual reports and accounts, what is being done to speed up the process?”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. What are the main priorities for Waterways Ireland, including in the corporate planning period from 2015 to 2016?”
“In this debate, as with the Minister's statement earlier, we should all be supporting the farming community and the rural dweller. It is sad to see the empty seats across the way. They speak publicly about supporting the farming industry and the rural dweller, but that has certainly not been shown today. I ask everybody here to support the motion.”
“That is OK. I did not hear what you said at the end, and I take that as done. <BR /> <BR />To finish up here, we have the farming community and all their families involved in it. In this dispersed rural area, the farming community are the last people to come forward when they have health problems or any problems at all. That drives more and more of the farming community into having suicidal thoughts and committing suicide. That is recognised by farmers, the farmers' unions and all. We must take a real look at what goes on in the rural area. It is not the same as the urban area. We keep centralising services. In reality, when we centralise services, we are leaving the rural dweller having to travel further and further to get treatment. <BR /> <BR />I am quite saddened by today.”
“<BR /> <BR />Dominic Bradley said that we should be looking to the examples of the Republic of Ireland and Wales. Indeed, he supported the motion. Leslie Cree supported the motion, as did Kieran McCarthy, who said that the present indices have served their purpose but must be reviewed urgently. I agree with him. Ian Milne said that the current method does not show the depth of poverty faced by rural dwellers. Dolores Kelly stated that she had to intervene on behalf of a patient who needed domiciliary care. Rural people are hesitant about coming forward to ask for help. <BR /> <BR />Roy Beggs mentioned that gas is available to rural villages. Am I correct? Did I take that up right?”
“We had local transport, which the previous Minister withdrew. So, we do not have anything there to help older people to communicate. People with special needs and disabilities are still suffering because of the lack of transport. They cannot get out and communicate either. They cannot even take part in training for the Special Olympics because the only place that they can go from my area of the glens is to the Antrim Forum, a round journey of nearly 70 miles. <BR /> <BR />I will comment on some of the things that Members said. Mr Declan McAleer was the architect of this private Member's motion, and I have to congratulate him on his hard work and the hours that he spent putting it together. He stated that poverty is widely dispersed and the present system cannot cope with it.”