Diana Armstrong to be guided by her father's principles, as she takes over at Stormont's agriculture committee
Diana Armstrong will take over from Robbie Butler as the chair of Stormont’s agriculture committee, after his appointment to the role of Minister of Health.
The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA has said the guiding principles set by her father when he was Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister are still the right tests for today.
"It is a privilege to take up the chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, and I want to thank Robbie Butler for his work in the role. This Committee's job is scrutiny: to hold the Department to account and make sure it works for the industry and the people it exists to serve.
"Agriculture has shaped virtually every aspect of my life. I grew up on our family farm near Ballinamallard and I am married to a farmer, so I know the realities at first hand. When my father, Harry West, was Minister of Agriculture, he worked to three guiding principles: investment in farming, education of young farmers, and affordability. Sixty years on, those are still the right tests.
"I take up this role at a difficult moment. Fivemiletown is in my constituency, and I have spoken to farming families there. Confidence between farmers and the Department that regulates them has been badly damaged, and rebuilding it will take more than time passing. Nor have the other pressures gone away: the cost of fertiliser, the basic affordability of farming, bovine TB running through herds, and continuing uncertainty over nutrient rules and farm support. We should also speak far more openly about mental health in farming. Resilience should never be mistaken for an absence of need”.
Mrs Armstrong added: “Climate targets should be revised, not abandoned, and on Lough Neagh, wastewater infrastructure must face the same scrutiny as farming. What I will not accept is our farmers carrying that burden alone. They manage our land, and they should be central to the design of policy rather than the people it is done to.
"Our farmers get on with the job quietly and without fanfare. They deserve a Department that understands them, not one they experience only through inspection and enforcement. That is the test I will apply, and I am ready to get started."