Edwin Poots
South Belfast · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I call Mr Eóin Tennyson. Again, this is Mr Tennyson's first opportunity to speak as a private Member, so I remind the House that it is convention that a maiden speech be made without interruption. However, if you choose to express views that provoke an interruption, you are likely to forfeit that protection.”
“Sorry — Ms Armstrong. My apologies. <BR /> <BR />That the Assembly could, in some way, get that money out when it is a UK Government responsibility. The UK Government have distributed it directly in Scotland and Wales, not through the Welsh Parliament and not through the Scottish Parliament.”
“I have not got time; I am sorry. <BR /> <BR />Ursula von der Leyen, who was in the Republic last week, made some of the most ridiculous claims about the British Government, who have supported Ukraine in a way that no other Government in Europe have and who have never engaged in the activity that was suggested by Ursula von der Leyen.”
“Today, a lot of statements have been made but there has not been a lot of fact behind a lot of what has been said. We have Michelle O'Neill, who walked out of her role as Health Minister — not for six months but for three years — and abandoned her position when we had Bengoa and there were all the problems with nursing that led to the str…”
“I need to deal with the issues first. <BR /> <BR />He referred to the Budget that he produced. No party supported that Budget. The Alliance Party did not support it, because it did not cover policing and prisons. Infrastructure did not support it, because it would not allow it to do the basics of what had to be done.”
“We had a circumstance where Sinn Féin repeated, month after month after month, that there were hundreds of millions to give to the public when that did not exist and when, in reality, Minister Murphy was racking up debt that will roll into next year, which will ensure that that will be a difficult financial year.”
The complete record
Every one of 3,549 lines we hold for Edwin Poots, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 59 of 71.
“During 2020, the UK Government and the EU will hold talks about a new fisheries agreement, and that will include any future access to each other's waters. In that regard, I advised Minister Eustice that the Northern Ireland fishing fleet has worked hard to become the most active in the Irish Sea and that I expect it to benefit from any future agreement with the EU.”
“I discussed the introduction of the Fisheries Bill in the House of Lords with George Eustice MP, now Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Fisheries Bill provides a new policy framework to allow the UK to manage its fisheries as an independent coastal state. The Bill includes provisions on access to fisheries and the regulation of foreign fishing boats. In future, EU and other non-UK fishing boats will have to comply with the terms of any access agreement that has been agreed between the EU, or their flag state, and the UK. The UK Government want to ensure compliance with access conditions by extending the current licensing arrangements for UK fishing boats to foreign fishing boats as well. In that way, we can control who is fishing, where they can fish and what they can take from our waters.”
“I talked to my departmental officials and indicated that I want us to work on achieving a target of no plastic going to waste over the next five years. We need to look at fairly significant aims if we are to tackle the issue. Ten years ago, people thought that 50% was a significant aim, and that has been achieved. Let us achieve more, in all areas of recycling. Indeed, let us achieve more in all areas of producing waste that is not needed in the first instance. Many large supermarkets and other bodies use far too much packaging. We need to reduce packaging and challenge people about the packaging that they are producing in the first instance.”
“Outline business cases are done on the economics of all these things, which are for the Department of Finance to review. The Member makes a point that will be considered by people, particularly in the Department of Finance, that these things need to stack up financially. In Northern Ireland, we have had too many schemes that have not delivered and been very expensive to the public purse. We need to stop doing that and ensure that we always spend money wisely.”
“More resources, please. I will always take a few pounds to help you achieve what the Assembly wants to achieve, which is less pollution in our environment, greater use of nutrients for the good, more waste recycling for the good and more waste being resourced to produce energy. We will do all those things, and the more you can persuade Minister Murphy to send us a few pounds, the easier it will be for this Minister to achieve it.”
“What I will commit to is to reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. We will ensure that we continue to increase the 50% figure. The composting that Mr Boylan referred to has been very successful. We need to extract as much out of that as possible. We need to continue to narrow and narrow the amount of residual waste that exists in Northern Ireland to a very small core.”
“Another example is the prosperity agreements that are being developed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency with businesses. The agreements promote those circular activities and resource efficiency once again, while simultaneously ensuring positive business growth and development.”
“I know that the Member has had an interest in the issue for a long time. It is something to which I am totally committed. When I was previously Environment Minister, we were recycling 30% and were told that we could not get to 50%. We brought about the reduce, reuse and recycle campaign, which helped us to achieve the 50% level that we are at now. <BR /> <BR />The circular economy seeks to change the focus of waste management from resource management to resource efficiency. That is critical to maximising the value of the waste resource and the impact of its use on the environment. We are promoting several initiatives that encompass the principles of the circular economy. Significant work has already been done on waste prevention and recycling initiatives.”
“I am pleased to say that, as a result of the work that has been done, the figures for waste going to landfill have been coming down, and coming down quite steadily. Between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2019, 26·5% of all waste went to landfill. That equates to 264,795 tons. Arc21's share of that is 182,506 tons, so the Arc21 area is currently producing 30·7%. Obviously, there is work to be done in the Arc21 area if the overall level for Northern Ireland is 26·5% and its level is 30·7%. More work can be done by Arc21 to reduce the amount of residual waste that is in the system.”
“I am determined to build on that success and reduce the amount of residual waste. The current £23 million household waste recycling collaborative change programme provides financial support to local councils to increase recycling rates further and improve the quality of recycling. To date, I have made £3·45 million available for four projects. Ideally, I wish to see waste minimised and any waste that does arise to be recycled. However, for the foreseeable future, a significant proportion of Northern Ireland's residual waste will have to undergo residual waste treatment and be sent to energy-from-waste facilities that extract at least some value from the waste through energy and heat. In that context, I am considering the strategic and long-term needs for residual waste management in Northern Ireland.”
“During 2019, the Northern Ireland household waste recycling rate surpassed 50% for the first time, which meant that the EU and waste management strategy target of 50% recycling by 2020 has been met ahead of schedule.”
“The current Northern Ireland waste management strategy focuses on moving waste up the waste hierarchy away from landfill, and that includes recovery such as energy from waste, recycling, preparing for reuse and waste prevention. Legislation and initiatives arising from the strategy have contributed to a significant increase in the tonnage of local authority-collected municipal waste that has been diverted from landfill, especially to recycling, in recent years.”
“The deer population is not as extensive as the badger population, but deer are known to be carriers of TB. I am interested in looking at that because testing is not currently carried out on domesticated deer. I will raise that with my Chief Veterinary Officer and his team. Among the real spreaders of TB are llamas and alpacas. People import them, thinking that they are nice and cute. However, the fact that they spit quite a lot causes considerable spread of TB, if they happen to have it, so they can be very contagious. That is something to be cautious about.”
“It is nonsensical, it is expensive and I do not believe that it is in the interests of the farming community or, indeed, of the environmentalists who want a healthy wildlife population in our country. I want a healthy wildlife population in our country. I have badgers on my property, and I would not let anybody touch them, because they do not cause problems. However, two or three miles up the road, others are plagued with TB coming from the badger population in that area, and something needs to be done for those people.”
“Essentially, that is what I have just said. Our target should be the areas with badgers that have been extensively contaminated with TB. The science — the work that has been done behind the scenes — indicates that we have had really significant breakdowns in the bovine herd. When an analysis of the badger population has been carried out, it has been found that it has an even greater intensity of TB. I make a plea to the House: if you are really concerned about the welfare of the wildlife, why not remove the wildlife that spreads infection constantly to other wildlife? That is what is needed here. We need to deal with the problem. We have, largely, a wildlife-to-bovine spread. There could be some bovine-to-wildlife spread, but we are removing the bovines; we are not removing the wildlife.”
“I remember being in a meeting with Simon Coveney when he was Agriculture Minister and I was Environment Minister. At that stage, they had only started the process. The evidence base now exists in the South of Ireland. It is an evidence base that we are happy to use, and I have a preference for what is being done in the South of Ireland over what is being done in England. I do not think that there should be a widespread cull of badgers. There should be a targeted cull so that, where the evidence base exists and the veterinary people can identify the source of the problem that is causing devastation in the bovine herd, we can do something about it. Where there is no evidence base that that exists, we should not cull the wildlife. I would be totally opposed to that.”
“We are spending £24 million on the testing, which is on the veterinary side of things and is a huge proportion of the money that we spend on trying to control TB. Over quite a number of years, that has been rising. Thankfully, the rate has fallen in the past couple of years after new measures were put in place. There is little more that can be asked of the farming community; it is for the veterinary side to do its bit and the political side to do its bit. That involves making tough decisions, maybe controversial decisions. Nonetheless, they are decisions that will improve the welfare of the wildlife population and the bovine population and, at the same time, reduce the spend from the public purse. To me, that is the wise way of dealing with the issue.”
“We have some very high concentrations of badgers, and they have very high levels of TB. It is in the interests of the welfare of both the bovine and the wildlife population to ensure that we eradicate the TB, and we are not doing that by just killing the cows.”
“Yes, I recognise it. I know farmers who have lost hundreds of animals, and the damage to them mentally and the stress caused are huge. In many cases, the family line of the animal has been in the herd for 20 or 30 years and the farmer has been developing those genetics for many years. Excellent cows are being removed from the system, but they are not removing the source of the problem. <BR /> <BR />The science is there. We are able to link badgers and other wildlife, including deer — but badgers, in particular — to that particular type of TB. There is a wide range of TB across Northern Ireland. You get a different source of TB in mid-Down from that in south Down, that in Armagh, that in Fermanagh and so forth. Each type can be linked to the wildlife in each area.”
“Officials will shortly present me with detailed options on the proposed strategy recommendations that I will consider with a view to implementing them as soon as possible thereafter.”
“<BR /> <BR />Over the past couple of years, my Department has been developing a new bovine TB eradication strategy in response to the recommendations made by the independent TB strategic partnership group in 2016. The Department's response to those recommendations was the subject of a public consultation from November 2017 to February 2018. The strategy proposes to reduce bovine TB levels by comprehensively addressing all the recognised key factors in the spread of the disease. It makes recommendations covering six key areas, ranging from herd health management and research to more complex issues such as compensation levels and wildlife intervention that will require public consultation and new legislation.”
“With your permission, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 2 and 13 together. <BR /> <BR />I am keenly aware of the financial and personal costs that a bovine tuberculosis outbreak has on local farming families and businesses. I am also extremely conscious of the large amount of public money that is spent on tackling TB in Northern Ireland each year. I am pleased to report that, as a result of declining disease levels, the compensation bill is expected to fall to around £18·5 million this financial year. However, an overall bTB programme cost of £36 million is still far too high. Therefore, implementing new measures as part of a clear strategy to reduce bovine TB in Northern Ireland is a key priority for me.”
“Area-based payments will remain: let us be clear about that. That will always be a proportion of the payments. It is about how we distribute other elements of that and whether we can reduce the amount that goes to area-based payments and use more of it to encourage production-based, particularly for young people who want to come home and engage in farming. Many young men and women across the country would enjoy a farming career but do not own land, whilst there are others who own land but do not want to farm. I want to encourage the people who want to farm, not the people who want to own land.”
“The first element of achieving that stability is to achieve a similar amount of money, if possible. Obviously, that has happened for the year 2020. Moving forward, we will contend that that is what Northern Ireland agriculture needs. The second element of having stability is to identify how we distribute that £293 million or the amount that we get. I want to see as much of that as possible going to productive farms, as opposed to people who own large quantities of land but do not do work on it. I want to encourage younger people into farming. Obviously, they do not have large tracts of land or land banks, so we need to incentivise them. All of those things need to be looked at. It will be for me, in conjunction with the Committee and the House, after discussion with the various stakeholders, to identify a way forward.”
“There will be ongoing consultation with farmers and other stakeholders as policy is developed in this area.”
“With your permission, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 1 and 7 together. <BR /> <BR />I am looking at what future payments can do to support sustainable farming in our agricultural landscape. In doing that, I will give consideration not just to coupled payments but to all types of support that could be available. In relation to coupled payments, we have to take into account the provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol of the withdrawal agreement, which will put a limit on the amount of support that can be linked to production in Northern Ireland. Those limits are still to be determined, but they are likely to be similar to the limits under the common agricultural policy, which currently range from 8% to 15% of the total allocation for a member state.”
“Therefore, I wish to pursue that line and start the process of legislation, which involves all the relevant consultations in advance of that.”
“I can see how being the only jurisdiction in the United Kingdom not to afford that extra protection has the potential to reflect adversely on our reputation as a custodian of animal welfare. Therefore, I will consult the Department of Justice and my ministerial colleague Naomi Long on the issue. Thereafter, I hope to bring forward a public consultation process and, thereafter, bring legislation to the House on the back of and depending on the outcome of the public consultation process. I have little doubt that the outcome will be positive, given the feedback from the House today and our natural instinct to afford good care and welfare to animals. It is not something that goes across one party in the Chamber; it goes across all parties. It not a political issue; it is an issue of what is good and right and what is the right thing to do.”
“There are no specific provisions for service dogs, and that means that an individual charged with that offence can argue that they were acting in self-defence and, therefore, were justified in using physical force against a service animal. My Department has been keeping the matter of Finn's law and the position in Scotland under careful review, and some initial steps have been taken to identify the evidence base to take the matter forward. <BR /> <BR />I recognise the invaluable work of service animals in Northern Ireland, and I assure you that I take the welfare of animals seriously. I am sympathetic to the introduction of extra protection for service animals in Northern Ireland.”
“It applies to animals under the control of a police officer or prison officer but not search and rescue dogs and other working animals. Mr Givan has raised that issue, and I will take on board the issue of animals that do not belong to the police or the Prison Service but are provided to key services such as search and rescue; indeed, they provide an invaluable service on that front line. I am also informed that a Bill is before the Scottish Parliament that would provide extra protection for service animals in that jurisdiction. <BR /> <BR />In Northern Ireland, the welfare of all animals is protected under the Welfare of Animals (Northern Ireland) Act 2011. Under that Act, there is an offence of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.”
“Yes. I know that the Member has a passion for pigeons. I congratulate him on his ingenuity in getting the point in that those service animals were awarded that medal during the Second World War. Of course, it went to the pigeons that carried all of those messages and, indeed, did a fantastic job of getting those messages back home. I congratulate all those involved. <BR /> <BR />I understand that Finn's law was introduced following three high-profile cases in England where decisions were taken not to prosecute alleged perpetrators under the 2000 Act for the reasons that I mentioned. Finn's law provides that anyone who causes unnecessary suffering to a service animal while it is in the commission of its duties cannot use self-defence as a mitigation.”
“That is absolutely critical in the debate. I give way to the Member.”
“We need to ensure that prisoners know that that animal has additional protections and, unless they want a considerable period added to their sentence, they should not touch that animal. It is a powerful message that we put out in that situation. <BR /> <BR />On the streets, a dog will confront violent criminals. Once again, violent criminals need to recognise that that dog has protection under the law. Identifying drugs on the streets or in airports is a key role. Service animals have key roles in delivering where human beings cannot.”
“another individual. Prior to the introduction of Finn's law, under the 2006 Act, an individual could claim that they were justified in using physical force against a service animal by arguing that they were acting in self-defence. <BR /> <BR />Let us talk for a moment about the role of a service animal and where it might be. Mr Givan outlined some of the circumstances. Such animals are often in a prison situation, where they could be searching for drugs. Humans cannot actually deliver that, whereas a dog can, so the effectiveness of a dog is without question. However, prisoner violence can also be without question and, on occasions, when prisoners are involved in riotous situations, a dog is put on the front line.”
“In determining whether suffering is unnecessary, a number of considerations are taken into account, including:”
“The motion calls on me to introduce legislation in Northern Ireland that would offer extra protection to service animals, similar to that which has been afforded to these animals in England and Wales under the Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Act 2019, commonly known as "Finn's law". I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the matter. Some Members may not be aware of that law. For those who are not, it may assist if I set out what Finn's law does. It came into effect in June 2019 when the UK Government amended the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in England and Wales to provide specific protections for service animals that had been attacked when on duty. Under the 2006 Act, it is an offence to inflict "unnecessary suffering" on an animal.”
“It is good to see so much unanimity around the Chamber on the issue. It is important, and I welcome the fact that it has been brought to the House by Mr Easton and Ms Cameron. I trust that we can develop it very quickly in the lifetime of the Assembly. In reality, we have only two years in this mandate to get things done, and Members will find that that is a very short time. On this issue, I hope that the Assembly can make a mark for the betterment of animal welfare. <BR /> <BR />Animal welfare falls to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, and we take the issue seriously.”
“That goes across all sectors. <BR /> <BR />There is a significant opportunity. We are currently sending £22 million a year back to Westminster. We need to get this issue right, not rushed.”
“From 2012 to 2030, the renewable heat initiative will account for 6% to 7% of the greenhouse gas reductions in Northern Ireland that we are seeking.”
“The scheme is already less effective as a consequence of Karen Bradley rushing legislation through Westminster. The same Karen Bradley could not bring forward legislation on historical institutional abuse victims, but, nonetheless, she brought legislation through Westminster that made entirely unjustifiable cuts, which made the running of the boilers a huge burden for those who invested heavily in the capital cost of installation. Members may think it is popular because one particular newspaper happens to run a story about it very regularly — it has somewhat of an obsession with it — and it is bad news, given the way it is put out there. It is, but the reality is that a lot of good has come from the renewable heat initiative.”
“That will have a significant benefit, as it is estimated that products used in a single shower could result in 100,000 plastic particles entering the sewerage system. <BR /> <BR />Where an energy strategy is concerned, Sinn Féin brought forward a notion about closing down RHI. Let me say this: the ambitions of RHI were good. The introduction of the renewable heat incentive — there are renewable heat initiatives in the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales — has reduced ammonia, carbon and methane in our environment. A crude closure would mean a return to fossil fuels, which would be environmentally damaging. It is an entirely contradictory position for Sinn Féin to suggest that we should close RHI and reduce carbon because, if you close the RHI, you will increase carbon.”
“We also have the opportunity of looking at the office of environmental protection, which is being developed in Westminster to take the place of what would previously have been carried out by the European Commission. <BR /> <BR />We are planning to eliminate plastic pollution. That is an absolute must. We need to do more to reduce our dependence on single-use plastic bags. It is estimated that we have brought in some £19 million since the introduction of the plastic bag levy and that we have used 300 million fewer single-use bags as a consequence. I pay tribute to Mr Durkan for his work in bringing that in. It has been a significant success story. My Department also introduced a ban on the manufacture and sale of rinse-off personal care products, including microbeads, in March 2019.”
“In November 2017, a report on a review of environmental governance, jointly commissioned by a number of environmental NGOs, stated that forming an independent environmental agency without pinpointing all the problems would probably mean that any reforms would not operationally have much impact. Any decision on a fundamental structural change to the NIEA is, of course, a matter for the Executive, but a robust economic appraisal of the costs and benefits of having an independent agency will be necessary to inform that decision properly. I remain open to the idea of an independent environmental protection agency, and that is something that we will look at.”
“My Department is refreshing the Northern Ireland biodiversity strategy to align our targets with post-2020 global diversity targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Once again, we need to act collectively, as improvements in biodiversity can be achieved only when we work together. <BR /> <BR />On the matter of establishing an independent environmental protection agency to oversee the work, I say that environmental governance is much wider than the degree of independence of one particular agency. It is about making appropriate decisions on the environmental outcomes that we are seeking to achieve and about the effective and efficient deployment of limited resources to achieve those outcomes.”
“Much of the climate change debate is about mitigating the impact of our emissions, but we also need to adapt to the changes that are already happening, whether those are due to rising sea levels, a wetter climate or more extreme weather. As required by the UK Climate Change Act 2008, a second five-year Northern Ireland climate change adaption programme was recently published by my Department. It contains government and outside government responses to the latest climate change risks identified for Northern Ireland. Again, we need to work together on building a resilient Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />The biodiversity information compiled by the NIEA and various other stakeholders has indicated that there is a variety of pressures in Northern Ireland.”
“All of that emphasises the need to take action across the board. <BR /> <BR />I have set out initial actions that I intend to take to tackle climate change, and I will consider plans to bring forward climate change legislation and other approaches on climate change outlined in 'New Decade, New Approach'. However, these are significant and complex issues that have long-term consequences, and I do not want to be bounced into rushing through measures that we later regret. I appreciate the need for swift action, but there are matters that need thorough analysis. It will take collaborative action across all parts of government, local government, business, industry and households to ensure that we leave the environment in better shape than that in which we found it. <BR /> <BR />I will say a quick word about climate change adaption.”
“Statistical research released by my Department last week estimates that, by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions in Northern Ireland will have reduced by 37% on their 1990 levels to 15 million tons. The level of confidence that we can place on some of those projections is naturally subject to wide variation. Much of the reduction has been achieved as a result of our efforts in the energy sector, particularly the increase in renewable energy to 45%. In other areas, it has proved more challenging to reduce emissions, and work remains for us on a number of those areas. Our emissions from transport have gone up, and our land use, which elsewhere is a carbon sink, is an emitter. There have been significant reductions in other sectors, such as waste, but those sectors are responsible for relatively small percentages of emissions.”
“The report has been circulated internally and externally, and its recommendations are being considered by all Northern Ireland Departments. Our response to climate change action is coordinated through a cross-departmental future generations and climate change group. I intend to personally oversee the group's work personally to ensure that we build on our response to the impacts of climate change. <BR /> <BR />Turning to what we have achieved so far, the latest Northern Ireland greenhouse gas inventory estimates emissions to be 20 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is an 18% reduction on the 24 million tons that were emitted in 1990. Our reductions are of a lesser amount than elsewhere in the UK, but, nonetheless, they are still welcome.”
“Accordingly, I am writing to the Committee on Climate Change, asking it to provide advice and assistance on what we need to do in Northern Ireland to reduce our emissions so that we can contribute equitably to the net zero target. On receipt of its recommendations, I will bring the Committee's advice on what we do on climate change to the Executive to agree a way forward. Decisions on any new cross-cutting approaches will naturally require Executive support. <BR /> <BR />My Department commissioned the Committee on Climate Change to produce a report on how Northern Ireland can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the 2020s. 'Reducing emissions in Northern Ireland' was published in February 2019 and provides us with advice on how we can deliver reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”
“We need to be clear that carbon capture in agriculture is properly recorded so we can move forward on an evidential science-based analysis as opposed to wrapping up with what everybody else is doing elsewhere, given that we have a different food production system from many parts of Europe.”