Suggestions from various quarters that new money could be found within DAERA to fund a future Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme in NI, have been dismissed by the department’s finance director, Roger Downey.

Answering a question from Strangford MLA Michelle McIlveen at the Stormont Agriculture committee last Thursday, Downey said budgets were “extremely constrained” across all government departments, and DAERA was no different.

On top of that, there is “volatile expenditure” each year due to bovine TB compensation, which fluctuates in line with numbers of reactors and market values. “We’re always trying to manage the budget to cover that because it’s 100% [compensation]. So, there’s no money down the back of the sofa to fund other things,” he said.

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Downey repeated a point made by other senior DAERA officials in recent weeks, that if MLAs do pass an ANC bill taken forward by Sinn Fein MLA Declan McAleer, the funding will have to come out of existing support, meaning other farm payments would be cut.

Those farm payments originate from an overall £332.5m earmarked budget for agriculture, fisheries and rural development, which DAERA has to bid for annually from the Department of Finance. The funding was first made available in 2025-2026 and is in place for “future years”.

Downey was also asked if DAERA has bid for an inflationary uplift to this earmarked pot of money or included an allowance for inflation in future estimates.

“There are hundreds of millions of pressures in health, similarly in education and justice, for example.

“It’s difficult to put bids in when you know you have to be realistic with the bids as well. There isn’t an inflationary bid in at this stage to increase that,” he responded.

McIlveen takes aim at McAleer over ANC

At the end of the final evidence session as part of their considerations of a proposed bill to reinstate Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments, members of the Stormont Agriculture committee finally got to the nub of the issue around how it would be funded.

Over the last number of weeks, most farm and environmental organisations have said they support the principle of providing extra support to farmers in the ANC, but only if new money is available.

Other than the NI Agricultural Producers Association (NIAPA), everyone else has said they would not support ANC if it has to be funded by cutting direct payments to all farmers in NI.

In his closing remarks, the sponsor of the bill, Declan McAleer noted that all political parties agree that the money shouldn’t come out of the existing farm support budget. “And I also will say that if we just blindly accept the department saying there’s no new money, then we just stop asking for anything,” he said.

That remark drew the ire of former DAERA minister Michelle McIlveen, who pointed to the tight budget position across Stormont and that McAleer’s party colleague John O’Dowd is currently the finance minister.

“I think it’s actually quite reckless to say that we shouldn’t be accepting what the department says when they’re saying there’s no new money. That final comment from him is actually quite concerning,” suggested McIlveen.

The final ANC session had heard from leadership within the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster who made clear they backed the principles behind the bill, but also that its support was conditional on new money being found.