Kilkeel DARD Office Closure will isolate many farmers

Outreach Service Required

 Now that the Minister for Agriculture has confirmed that the DARD Office in Kilkeel will close towards the end of June an outreach Service must be provided for those farmers who will not be unable to make the over 40 and 50 mile round trip journeys, to Newry or Downpatrick respectively, to get assistance for form filling and other important herd and environmental matters.

Many farmers from the Mourne area for health or farming reasons will be unable to commit the half day it will now take to travel to the DARD Direct office in either Downpatrick or Newry, and I will be strongly urging the Minister to introduce a service, much like the pension credit service, whereby an adviser can go out and visit the farmer in their home.

The withdrawal of the Kilkeel service will have a big impact on farmers in the Mourne area and will mean if they need assistance from the DARD office that they will now have to take half a day away from the farm to visit the Downpatrick or Newry Office’s instead of what would have a 30 minute trip to Kilkeel.

I would ask the Minister to pay particular attention to the needs of those farmers who for health and farming reasons are unable to make this journey for assistance.

Ends.