Credit where it is due; officials in DAERA along with Agriculture Minister Michelle McIlveen and her team should be congratulated for ensuring that 21,111 farmers (90.72% of eligible applicants) in NI have received £158m in 70% advance subsidy payments to date.

The next target is to get 95% of all eligible applicants fully paid by the end of December 2016. No doubt the payment has and will be a very welcome cash boost after a difficult year for the wider farming industry. But we must not lose sight of the fact that some farmers have received inspections and face delays. It would take some of the gloss off the announcement if these farmers are allowed to run into 2017 without receiving any money. That said, the performance in NI is infinitely better than counterparts in Britain, particularly in Scotland where the government there is offering farmers an 80% loan on their expected subsidy payment to get around the fact that they won’t be able to make payments until 2017. In England and Wales, farmers won’t receive any money until 1 December 2016.

Of course, the big question is how long subsidy payments will last and what form they will take, if any, post Brexit? In its current form, we can only be definite that there are three years left (2017 to 2019). While Defra Minister George Eustice was again talking about insurance-type models and grant schemes when he was in NI last week, would they really work for NI farming and would they be acceptable to British taxpayers who ultimately must fund any schemes?

Perhaps the most appropriate and defensible system is similar to what we already have, but tweaked towards environmental management and/or efficient productive output. Maybe before getting too focused on radical new ideas, we should also be thinking about what could be done to improve the current system.