FERMANAGH peer, Tom Elliott, has hit out at at government departments and agencies for their lack of support for our local farming and rural communities.
In a recent debate in the House of Lords, or which he is a member, Lord Elliott, pictured below, said it was important to “grasp the nettle” and recognise “that the farming community provides the food on our table, provides society with jobs and is the one economic base in this country consisting of price takers, not price makers.”
“We do not have the opportunity to set our own price for products—that is done by others,” he continued.
“If I go and buy a product in a shop, that price is set and I have to pay it. When we produce our milk, beef, sheep or wheat, we have to take whatever price the next part of the food chain gives us. We do not have that opportunity.”
The Ballinamallard man also pointed out the issues with cuts to the health service in rural areas, before returning to the issues facing our farmers.
“I come from County Fermanagh, where we have one state-of-the-art hospital. It has been open for only 12 years but we have theatres and beds in it that have never been used because we cannot get the health professionals to come and live in the rural areas,” he said.
“There needs to be a change in attitude, policy and direction.
“I have listened to some of the issues around financial support for the farming community, but it is not always financial support that the farming community wants; it is support in government policy as well.
“One aspect I will highlight is that where there are opportunities to improve animal housing—livestock housing—and to build modern, state-of-the-art housing, we in Northern Ireland are broadly not permitted to do that if we are within 7.5 kilometres of a European-designated site.
“That prevents us doing it. It does not matter what level of audits, surveys and assessments are carried out. If we are not meeting the targets, we cannot even replace it with housing that would be much better for the environment and have far lower greenhouse gas emissions. We are still not permitted to do it.
“Farmers need those types of policies, not just financial support.”
Lord Elliott concluded, “I know there is a climate change debate this afternoon and I do not want to encroach on that too much, but sometimes I believe that there are people and communities in this society who would rather we imported all our goods instead of producing our own, because that might mean we can hit our climate change targets more easily.
“That is not the case for me. I want us to produce them locally and to a better standard than others.”
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