Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has confirmed he is to chair a new NI Government Mournes Strategic Group set up to deliver “a more joined-up approach” to management of the landscape in the area.
Announcing the initiative, Minister Muir said the Mournes is facing “increasing and complex pressures” and that the new group would provide the leadership and coordination necessary to respond to these pressures.
Representatives from across government departments, agencies and also councils will be invited to take part in the group as will the Forever Mournes Partnership – its membership includes the likes of the National Trust, Mourne Heritage Trust and NI Water.
However, farmer representatives in the area maintain they haven’t been included in any discussions around the new group and have no knowledge of what Minister Muir hopes to achieve.
“This has come completely out of the blue. We would like to know what this is about. No Stormont Minister is in a position to form an off-the-cuff committee that decides our future,” said Kilkeel farmer and Mourne Mountains West Trustee, Oisin Murnion.
He pointed out that it is farmers who own about 30,000 acres of land in the high Mournes, not DAERA and said there is a lot of frustration in his area after a wildfire in April caused damage to around £120,000 of fences, yet no support has been made available.
“We asked for support – we are getting nothing. Someone else burns our property and all we get is another quango set up to manage it,” he said.
He also maintained that farmers have little option but to remove sheep off the hills due to the proliferation of dog walkers.
“A lot of the dogs are not even on leads. You get a do-gooder texting to say your sheep have gone astray, when it is actually their dog that has put the sheep there,” said Murnion.
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