A new 15-year rural development policy in NI is to go out for public consultation in the early part of 2026, a senior DAERA official has confirmed.

‘Rural NI – our new approach 2026 to 2041’ is being developed by DAERA in conjunction with a host of rural organisations, Dr Jason Foy from the department told last Thursday’s Agriculture committee meeting at Stormont.

He said the new rural policy is not a direct replacement for the EU Rural Development Programme (RDP), but will address wider issues and deal with “new and emerging challenges and opportunities”.

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The last RDP in NI for the period from 2014 to 2020 included Tier 1 and 2 capital grants on farms, the Environmental Farming Scheme and the likes of farm diversification, rural tourism, village renewal projects and small business grants. The programme finally closed in December 2023.

The lack of a similar RDP since then has been the source of frustration for rural groups, although there have been some pilot schemes, including grant funding for rural halls.

“That work seems to all now just have been dismantled and we’re starting again, so why has that happened?” asked West Tyrone MLA Declan McAleer at last week’s committee.

Responding, Foy referenced the lack of a Stormont Executive from 2022 to 2024. In addition, he said Minister Muir has decided on a new approach and wanted to commission a new rural policy.

“So that’s the work that we’ve been under undertaking. The learning and experience from that previous initiative has not been lost,” said Foy.

Drift

With just 18 months left of the current Stormont mandate, he said he was “very keenly aware” of the sense of drift and fears among rural groups there isn’t sufficient time to get new programmes in place.

Once a public consultation is done, the aim is to put the new policy to the Stormont Executive for agreement next autumn.

“We want to move quite swiftly after that to implementation,” added Foy.

When asked about potential budgets, he said costs are still to be worked out, but there is a recognition “a budget of significant size” will be required.

On the likelihood some of this money will be paid out before the next Stormont election he said it was a possibility. “I wouldn’t want to put it any more strongly than that at this point,” he said.