Ulster Unionist Agriculture Spokesperson Robbie Butler MLA has criticised comments made by Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir during a recent BBC Good Morning Ulster interview, describing them as misleading and unhelpful at a time of real pressure for Northern Ireland’s farming sector.

“Farmers across Northern Ireland are facing acute and immediate challenges driven by rising fuel costs, escalating fertiliser prices and growing supply uncertainty, not least in the context of instability linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Having taken queries from farmers asking whether this was new money, it is therefore deeply unhelpful to reference previously allocated, ring-fenced funding as though it represents a new response to these pressures.

“The £236 million Farm Sustainability Payment is already committed, tied to conditionality, environmental delivery and compliance requirements. It does not address the additional and rapidly increasing cost burdens currently being borne by farm businesses. To present it in that context is a bluff; it risks creating a false impression that new support is being brought forward when it is not.

“While it is welcome that the Minister recognises the need for action at Westminster on fuel duty, farmers will see through any attempt to conflate long-standing, pre-committed schemes with meaningful intervention in the current crisis.

“What is required now is a clear focus on the structural issues that continue to place unnecessary strain on the sector. Progress on planning reform, support for farm modernisation, and decisive action on bovine TB would go significantly further in easing pressures than reannouncing existing schemes.

“There must be honesty about what support is genuinely new, alongside a coordinated effort to press for practical measures that reflect the scale of the challenge facing agriculture today. Northern Ireland’s farmers underpin our food security, and they deserve a response that matches the seriousness of the situation.”