Coronavirus: £25m farming package 'not a magic bullet'

A £25m support package for farmers is not a "magic bullet" for the sector's losses, the agriculture minister has said.

Edwin Poots said he hoped those who qualified for a share of the cash would have it by the summer.

He said it would not offset significant losses, but might help some businesses get through the Covid-19 crisis.

Mr Poots told a Stormont committee the money would have to be directed at sectors which had suffered most.

Prices paid to farmers have fallen since the outbreak with the closure of pubs and restaurants cutting off important markets, and global commodity prices affecting sectors like dairy.

Mr Poots pointed out that £25m was a small pot of money when spread across 22,000 farms in Northern Ireland.

He said in designing the support scheme, he was still bound by EU state aid rules.

That meant that it could not be based on current production or prices because it risked distorting markets.

Instead, he said he would have to rely on existing data held by his officials.

He also said he wanted to ensure that the cash was fairly distributed and the system for delivering it was not overly bureaucratic.

Mr Poots said he wanted to ensure that it did not inadvertently overcompensate those who had already availed of other government support schemes or whose business had not been directly impacted by falling prices.

Mr Poots said it had been "critical" to keep processing plants for meat and dairy going during the crisis.

Chair of the Agriculture Committee Declan McAleer pointed out that some beef and sheep farms would not really benefit from the self-employed income support scheme because annual incomes were traditionally low.