Despite Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen suggesting earlier this year that a proposed new DAERA headquarters at Ballykelly might yet become a hub for the wider NI civil service, it looks like her officials are continuing to press ahead with the move.

At the Stormont agriculture committee last week, Louise Warde Hunter from DAERA said that building has now started, with 240 DAERA staff due to move to Ballykelly by January 2018, and a further 80 to move by the end of 2021 (first phase of the project).

“We are concentrating on taking forward this phase and the first 320 are all DAERA staff,” she told MLAs.

But with over 90% of staff in Dundonald House unwilling to make the move, and major challenges on the horizon with Brexit, Warde Hunter acknowledged that most of these 320 will be administrative posts where skills are more easily transferable across Departments. Across the wider NI civil service, 1,300 people have expressed an interest in working from Ballykelly.

The new building comes with a capital cost £21.5m with an extra £11.8m set aside to cover associated staff costs. The work will involve up to 200 construction jobs, and when complete, will have a capacity for 600 staff. “There will be lots of glass in the building to maximise the views,” said Tom Kennedy from DAERA.

He also revealed that the Department has had to pay out £600,000 for a half-acre plot of land to create a new access road on to the site.

While concerns remain that NI could be forgotten in wider UK negotiations around Brexit, DAERA’s finance director Graeme Wilkinson gave a much more upbeat assessment of the situation during a meeting with MLAs on the Stormont agriculture committee last week.

“I can give you a reassurance that we are being listened to and our voice is being heard at Whitehall. We are doing everything we possibly can,” Wilkinson told a sceptical Oliver McMullan from Sinn Féin. The senior DAERA official maintained that in correspondence between ministers the Department has been encouraged by the level of recognition of the agri-food industry in NI.

On wider finance issues, Wilkinson also highlighted some in-year pressures, but said that the DAERA budget remained on target, partly because of moves in exchange rates, when the likes of the EU contribution to DAERA’s TB programme is converted into sterling.

McIlveen to review appeals system

Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen has announced that she has commissioned a review of the process by which farmers can ask DAERA to reconsider a decision of an area-based payment.

Speaking in the Stormont Assembly chamber on Monday, the minister said that new CAP schemes introduced in 2015 have led to an unprecedented increase in appeals, and that she was concerned at the time being taken to review DAERA decisions.

While a first stage appeal could take many months, where an applicant moves to a second stage appeal, it has previously been highlighted that this process could take well over a year.

“I have therefore asked my officials to review our current provision and put in place a process which better meets the needs of farmers for the 2017 scheme year,” said Minister McIlveen.

New chair at Stormont committee

It is all change at the top in the Stormont agriculture committee with Sinn Féin MLA for mid-Ulster Linda Dillon moved from her role as chair of the committee as part of a party reshuffle, and replaced by east Derry MLA, Caoimhe Archibald. Archibald was first elected to the Assembly in May 2016 and had previously been deputy chair.

Less than 1% PI calves

Over 413,000 cattle have been BVD-sampled since the introduction of the compulsory testing programme on 1 March 2016, according to the latest figures from Animal Health and Welfare NI (AWHNI).

Of the cattle tested in 2016, the number of cattle with positive test results for BVD is around 3,000 head, which is 0.72% of all samples submitted. Approximately 17,500 herds are registered under the eradication programme.

While most persistently infected calves are being disposed of once identified on the majority of farms, AWHNI officials have reminded herd owners of the disease risks posed to breeding cattle by continuing to retain PI calves.

With last week’s announcement on targeted funding towards compensating farmers to dispose of BVD calves, officials hope this will encourage removal of all PI calves from herds.