DAERA officials have recommended that funding is not paid out to farmers in west Tyrone who were affected by floods and landslides in August 2017, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has said.

“The official recommendation is that we do not do a scheme,” Poots said in the NI Assembly on Monday.

However, an aid package could still be paid out, but it would require Minister Poots to use ministerial direction, given that it is against the advice of his officials.

The DUP politician indicated that he had concerns about going against the advice of civil servants.

“This will not be confined to one area. If I take some action, others may use that as a precedent to take further action in later times,” he said.

“It will be a challenging decision for me to make and one that I want to give absolute thought to,” he added.

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