UK Government could be using budget cuts in Northern Ireland as a blackmail tactic says former UUP leader Tom Elliott

Mr Elliott said the budgets set by the UK Government for local departments are crippling, particularly for the farming sector which is in sharp focus during Balmoral Show week.

He commented: “Without a Northern Ireland Executive the UK government have now set a budget for local departments, but as was anticipated the financial outcome falls far short of what departments require to adequately function. The budget allocation to the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs is no different in that it has suffered a significant reduction.

"These cuts may well be a blackmail tactic of the UK government to pressurise those not currently reforming a local Executive, but whether that is the case or not it will put significant added pressure onto the agricultural industry.”

He said that some of the aspects for the farming sector that will come under the spotlight in the near future due to the budget cuts are bovine tuberculosis on farms, climate change and agricultural support schemes.

Mr Elliott said: “Although the Department of Agriculture have been testing and strategising with their attempts to reduce Bovine TB for decades, it’s not working. The current system is having a massive negative impact on the farming community with herds being wiped out, generations of dedicated breeding by farmers totally eliminated, the mental impact and stress that this is causing to individuals is generally unseen.

“Added to that is the additional cost to the public for compensation and the removal of these animals from farms. A new and vigorous approach to dealing with Bovine TB is urgently required – departments here have delayed this for far too long, action needs to be taken now.”

He added: “In the past few years we have heard so much about climate change and the demands to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, however while it is a good soundbite, only a few people come up with practical solutions to resolve the issues.

“There are ways to proactively and positively deal with and manage greenhouse gas emission reduction, but it is not by killing half of the cattle in Northern Ireland, which would add to higher levels of agri-food imports from countries that have no interest or rules to reduce such emissions.

Mr Elliott said that if there is no local Executive, Northern Ireland could easily be subject to a support system imposed by the UK Government that is much more sympathetic to the English farming and environmental system, but not Northern Ireland.”

He commented: “As usual the local farming sector is potentially going to feel further pressure due to aspects over which it has no direct control.”

Meanwhile Alliance education spokesperson Connie Egan has said that potential cuts to Sure Start services in Northern Ireland would be devastating.

The 28 Sure Start projects across Northern Ireland support parents with children aged under four years old, living in disadvantaged areas.

The North Down MLA stated: “Any potential reduction in funding to Sure Start would be the latest in a long and hugely damaging line of funding cuts which target our most vulnerable children and young people, and from which it could be nearly impossible to recover.

“It’s an unavoidable truth that the financial uncertainty facing services such as Sure Start is a direct consequence of having no Executive or local Education Minister in place. A restored Executive would not solve every problem within our education system, but without the institutions back up and running, we’re at a complete standstill in dealing with the myriad of crises in the sector."

“Our children simply cannot afford to continue paying the price for the DUP boycott of the institutions.”

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said she does not believe a reformed Executive could not heal all ills because the money isn’t available.

She said: “Whilst some parties are using election broadcasts and pamphlets to promise false hope to people that a reformed Executive would fix healthcare, protect our schools and transform public services, the DUP are levelling with people and saying this isn’t possible because the public purse is empty. If Stormont was back in the morning, cuts would continue, waiting lists would remain, school intervention programmes would not return, roads would remain in a state of disrepair.”