Farmers 'need action not speeches' to restore confidence in their future - Butler
Farming families need action not speeches from the agriculture minister Andrew Muir if he is to restore confidence that he can secure their future, Robbie Butler has said.
The UUP deputy leader was responding to a speech by the Alliance politician at the Oxford Farming Conference – in which he set out his vision for a “thriving, resilient and environmentally sustainable future for Northern Ireland agriculture”.
The DAERA minister said that there had been “progress on key issues” such as the family farm tax, the Sustainable Agriculture Programme, bovine TB, ammonia and the forthcoming UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agri-food agreement.
However, Mr Butler said that while warm words about resilience and ambition “may play well on an international stage, they do little to restore confidence among Northern Ireland’s hard-working farming families”.
The UUP MLA, who chairs the agriculture committee at Stormont, said farming families have heard “plenty about vision, collaboration and aspiration” – but are lacking confidence that the minister and his department “truly understand the pressure they are under”.
“While we should acknowledge progress on farm family tax thresholds, we must not overstate that achievement. This was a concession forced by sustained pressure from the farming community and the Ulster Unionist Party, in particular Robin Swann MP, Lord Elliott and myself. It does not, however, erase the deep anxiety that still exists around intergenerational farm transfer and long-term viability”.
On Bovine TB, Mr Butler said farmers are “weary of pilots, blueprints and timelines that always seem to sit just beyond the horizon” – and said confidence will not return “until real progress is visible on the ground”.
In his Oxford speech, minister Muir said eradicating bovine TB remains a top priority. “In April last year, I endorsed the TB Partnership Steering Group’s blueprint for eradication and work is underway on five key areas. In October 2025, (Irish) Minister Martin Heydon and I launched a new cross-border pilot under the Shared Island Initiative to support reduction of bovine TB incidence and transmission”, he said.