Sinn Féin appeared to soften its opposition to proposed changes to the Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) on Tuesday when the party supported a motion at Stormont about blue-green algae.

In June, Sinn Féin, along with the DUP and UUP, backed a different motion which called on Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir to withdraw his public consultation on changes to NAP.

However, the party supported a new motion on Tuesday which was tabled by the SDLP and stated “regret at the misguided support” for the first motion back in June.

ADVERTISEMENT

In reality, neither of the motions passed by the NI Assembly are binding and will therefore not have an immediate impact on any policies about water quality.

But the change in tone from Sinn Féin does indicate that Minister Muir will have more political support in the months ahead as he finalises the ongoing NAP review.

Defending her party’s position, Sinn Féin MLA Aoife Finnegan highlighted that Minister Muir decided to set up a NAP stakeholder group after the consultation was published.

“That is a welcome development, but it is also an admission by the department that there should have been more of an effort on the Minister’s part to properly engage farmers, fishermen and communities at the outset when developing the NAP proposals,” she said.

Economic impact

Finnegan also pointed out that DAERA is now planning a full economic impact assessment on the NAP proposals “so that the impact on family farm incomes is fully understood”.

However, Jonathan Buckley from the DUP described Sinn Féin’s support for the new motion as “a huge betrayal of the farming community”.

“If you support the motion, you will have done a 180-degree U-turn on the position that you outlined in the house,” the Upper Bann MLA said.

First meeting

In his address, Minister Muir said the first meeting of the new NAP stakeholder group was “extremely constructive”, although the appointment of an external facilitator is still ongoing.

He thanked the representatives from agri food and environmental groups for “wanting to focus on solutions” and described the Ulster Farmers’ Union’s leadership on the issue as “amazing”.

Minister Muir also said the NAP group will now include the NI Food and Drink Association and the Rivers Trust, after both organisations were originally omitted.

The Alliance MLA said a separate “subgroup for science and research” is to be set up it will include representatives from the Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and AgriSearch.