MP calls for Mournes Taskforce

In this time of economic downturn and increasing financial pressures on farmers the MP for South Down has called for a Taskforce to look at the current and future needs of the farming and landowning community who work and live within the unique environment of the Mournes.

The MP said;

The Mournes and what it gives our communities stretches beyond the business of farming, it provides a great sense of community, and instils in each generation the moral backbone of handwork and honest labour.

However, sentiments don’t pay the bills.  In today’s financially challenged world, like it or not business and finances play a huge part in the everyday work of the farmer and landowner. The bottom line is that we cannot preserve, nurture and improve the land without the finances to undertake this work.

Recent government assistance with environmental and farm management projects, such as the Farm Nutrients scheme and the Rural Development

Programme, are welcome by the farming community.  However each of these schemes suffered from poor management; In the form of delays with the required farm inspections and the payment of the grants for the farm nutrient scheme. And we also had the fiasco that left farmers queuing over night like paupers for the Rural Development programme.

These schemes also required the applicant to make substantial financial commitments, and now with the advent of the banking crisis these commitments can be beyond the reach of many farmers.

On top of these already growing financial pressures, we heard in the news last week, of the importance of farmers making Wills, and the serious financial implications of not having a Will when it comes to the transfer of farm land and incomes such as the Single farm Payment. We also heard new coverage in recent days of the High Court Judgement confirming that land leased in conacre will now be subject to inheritance tax. Both of these stories bring to the fore the financial difficulties and complexities faced by farmers and landowners.

We need to get serious about the financial state of the farming industry and the rural community. While the Assembly talk about the upcoming Rural White Paper, I fear that we will be left with a white elephant, a paper full of platitudes and promises, and further to this an outcome that will not reflect the individual needs of different farming communities.

The stakeholder groups currently working on this Rural white paper are focusing on the following areas, Rural Vision, Rural Governance, Rural Services, Rural People and Rural Places. Given our unique working and living environment here in the Mournes, in a place of huge environmental significance, I feel strongly that the Mournes will have very different needs to that of Fermanagh or Tyrone. A catch-all solution is not possible when looking at the problems facing our rural communities.

We need to have a targeted approach to the future of the Mournes, a look at the unique working and living environment that has been nurtured over the years by our farmers and landowners.  In order to ensure the continuation of this guardianship of the Mournes we need to develop a serious long-term strategy to attract young farmers to continue farming the rural legacy, not piecemeal schemes with low interest loans, heaping more and more debt on our young people.

We need upfront funding for farm improvement works, not schemes were the farmer has to find the money and complete the work before a portion of the costs are reimbursed.

 We need meaningful recognition of the environmental contribution that farmers and landowners make to the Mourne Countryside.

We need real recognition that the Mournes in its outstanding area of natural beauty is rare and unique with its working community and landscape, shaped and preserved by those making a living from the land.

A few years ago we had the fisheries taskforce of South Down, established in recognition of our dependency on the threatened fishing industry. I believe, in light of the recent banking crisis and the increasing environmental pressures being put on our farmers, that we should look seriously at a Mournes taskforce. A Taskforce with authority and finances equipped to meet the long-term needs of farming and the environmental protection needs of the Mournes.

Without such intervention the legacy of our environment, farming and an honest hardworking way of life will be lost within a generation.

We must work hard, and work together to keep the Mournes a working and living environment.