Official Report: Minutes of Evidence
Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, meeting on Thursday, 6 March 2025
Members present for all or part of the proceedings:
Mr Robbie Butler (Chairperson)
Mr Declan McAleer (Deputy Chairperson)
Mr John Blair
Mr Tom Buchanan
Ms Aoife Finnegan
Mr William Irwin
Mr Patsy McGlone
Miss Michelle McIlveen
Miss Áine Murphy
Agriculture Bill: Committee Deliberations
The Chairperson (Mr Butler): A summary table will be provided in next week's pack in preparation for our deliberations on the Bill. I remind members that not all respondents wish to have their details or responses made publicly available. The responses are provided in confidence to the Committee, and the team will redact, where necessary, before they are published on the website or in the final report. Do members agree to commence the deliberations at next week's meeting?
Members indicated assent.
The Chairperson (Mr Butler): Thank you, members. Do members agree that the responses will now be published on the Committee's website with the relevant redactions, which are needed and required?
Members indicated assent.
The Chairperson (Mr Butler): Thank you, members. I refer members to the Minister's letter dated 4 March about the fruit and vegetable aid scheme (FVAS). It states that, following Committee evidence sessions to date, he decided that he:
"will not be closing the FVAS at the end of 2025. This would allow Producer Organisations with a head office in Northern Ireland to submit a new operational programme for approval in September 2025."
He has also instructed his officials:
"to begin preparatory work on a replacement scheme to be developed in co-design with the horticultural sector, informed by the ongoing policy review of the current FVAS."
I am sure that members will agree that that is a welcome and timely development as we go into our deliberations on the Bill. I understand that the Minister wished to give the Committee first sight of the plans before making a formal announcement to stakeholders.
Do members wish to make any comments? Are you content to note that until our deliberations begin formally next week?
Miss McIlveen: I am content, but the importance of evidence sessions and the Committee's scrutiny mechanism of the Bill has been underlined. Although the payment has been extended for a further year, it might be useful to get some correspondence or comments from the sector to find out whether it is still content with that measure, because there was a considerable amount of negativity. Can we find out and be sure that the sector is content with what has been outlined?
Mr McAleer: I was going to propose the same thing. I welcome the proposal, and it is a good example of the Minister and the Department listening to the deliberations of the Committee and the sector, taking them on board and making changes. It would be useful to go back to the sector to get a steer on that.
The Chairperson (Mr Butler): Absolutely. Fair comments, guys. We point out when papers come to the Committee late, but, when the Department gets it right, we should similarly correspond with that information. We need to make sure that we speak for the sector in that regard. Michelle's point is well made, and we will act on that.