Looking back over the last 12 months since Balmoral Show 2017, it is difficult to identify any particular policy areas where significant progress has been made.

The industry is still waiting on Government funding for a new marketing body to promote NI food and drink. A sustainable land management policy devised by an expert group is gathering dust, while work to establish a new livestock genetics database is slowly limping along.

But of most concern is the lack of real progress in tackling the high incidence rate of bovine TB.

It had been hoped that a pilot cull targeted at infected wildlife in two areas (Gortin and Cullybackey) would have happened in 2018. But it looks like it will have to wait for at least another year, meaning that it will be 2020 at the earliest before there is any sort of significant wildlife intervention work across NI.

Meanwhile, we are fast heading towards Brexit, and outside of the EU there is a real danger that countries will cite the high rate of TB in NI as a good reason not to trade livestock products with us in future.

While some criticism for all these failings can probably be levied at the door of risk adverse civil servants, it must still be recognised that ultimately it is the lack of political accountability at Stormont that is the real problem. Civil servants draw up policy options, but it is politicians who make decisions.

At last week’s Balmoral Show there seemed to be little prospect that a restoration of the institutions is on the cards, at least not until some sort of deal around Brexit is found and agreed. The quicker that happens, the better for everyone concerned. Stormont Government is far from perfect, but it is much better than no Government at all.