DAERA vets with no legal power since 2021

The veterinary service within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland (NI) has had no power to legally enforce rules around identification, registration and movement of cattle and sheep since 2021.

Outlining the issue at a meeting of the Stormont agriculture committee on Thursday, Neal Gartland from DAERA revealed that the department has been unable to pursue any legal cases over the period.

Prior to 2021, an average of around 20 cases per year would be sent for prosecution for offences such as having missing cattle at a TB test, unregistered movements and untagged cattle on farm.

Gartland explained that NI legislation had not yet been updated to properly reference EU animal health law, which applies in NI as part of post-Brexit arrangements.

Legal advice

“In 2021, with the application of animal health law, we had legal advice that your legal powers would be queried,” said Gartland.

He confirmed that the new legislation brought before the committee on Thursday simply involves giving those enforcement powers back to DAERA.

However, while the department was unable to pursue any prosecutions since 2021, it did still put movement restrictions on to herds not fully complying with the original rules, although whether it actually had the enforcement power to even do that is questionable.

“We will seek to make it [the new statutory rule] and lay it tomorrow, the reason being chair, because we have had this discussion today, it will become apparent that there is a question of legal risk over the enforcement powers that we use,” explained Gartland.

Of the committee members present, the majority was in favour of the legislation being made.

Five voted in favour, although the three Unionist members abstained amid ongoing concerns about the application of EU law in NI.