Agricultural machinery rules ‘absurd and anti-farmer’ - Robbie Butler on Grassmen's boat 'lunacy'

UUP deputy leader Robbie Butler also slammed what he called “the deeply flawed” Northern Ireland plant health label scheme - introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and “nodded through” by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

He said the scheme – set up under the terms of the Windsor Framework – is “actively dismantling the ability of rural businesses to trade freely in what, we are told, is still part of the United Kingdom”.

Mr Butler described the rules as “simply unworkable” – and “anti-business and anti-farmer”. He told MLAs: “There is no equivalent requirement for machinery moving in the other direction, so where is the logic and the fairness?

“Last week, I watched Gareth Gault from Grassmen, a respected and informed voice in the agriculture sector, online. He outlined with clarity and a sense of frustration the real-world impact that the scheme is having.

“What he said reflects what I hear on the ground, because, on the same day, at 6.30 am, I took a call from a constituent, a second-generation machinery dealer and farmer, who was exhausted and desperate.

“He was begging for help. He is asking not for special treatment but to be able to trade in the way in which he has been able to for 50 years without being strangled by pointless bureaucracy.

“The scheme is not about cleanliness or biosecurity. Our businesses have always complied. It is about political cowardice, cross-departmental failure and a complete disconnect from the real world. Northern Ireland's farming community is being choked by rules that no sane person would design and that, certainly, no Minister who had ever set foot in a yard or a field would defend.

“The people who put food on our tables are being treated as second-class citizens. It is time for DEFRA to reverse course, for DAERA to find its backbone and for this nonsense to end”.