Stormont officials ‘anxious’ about RDP replacement

Senior officials in the Department of Finance are “anxious” over the lack of available information about the replacement for the Rural Development Programme (RDP).

All EU structural funds in the UK, including the RDP, are to be replaced by a new UK government “Shared Prosperity Fund” from January 2021.

“We are getting close to a time when we need to know details about amounts and details about structures. We are becoming a little anxious,” said Bill Pauley from the Department of Finance.

Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Pauley said that EU structural funds were worth around £100m each year to the NI economy. The current RDP funds the likes of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme, the Environmental Farming Scheme and the LEADER programme

Pauley said that NI Executive would like full control over the NI allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund through a set budget from Westminster.

He maintained that this would be more effective than having to bid to the British Treasury for funding for individual projects and schemes.

“We would be very anxious that they are going to replace European bureaucracy with national bureaucracy,” Pauley added.

Final decision needed on flood support

A final decision needs to be made on whether NI farmers who were affected by floods and landslides in August 2017 receive funding, DAERA Minister Edwin Poots has said.

For a support package to proceed, Minister Poots needs to use “ministerial direction” as it now goes against the advice of his officials. This is because most landowners have already carried out remedial work.

“I want officials to do as much work as possible so that, if I choose to go down the support route, the case will be as robust as we can make it,” Minister Poots told MLAs on Monday.

“We need to bring those deliberations to a conclusion one way or the other,” he acknowledged.