The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has welcomed the recent announcement by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, regarding the new appointment of individuals to serve as chairpersons and panel members on DAERA’s area-based schemes review of decisions independent panels.
Commenting, UFU president David Brown said, “It has been well received by our members that DAERA have made the decision to form a new independent panel to make the final decision on area-based review cases in line with the regulations and scheme rules, which DAERA must then uphold. The UFU have been lobbying for some time on behalf of Northern Ireland farmers to get this approach in place, to give farmers more confidence that the process was conducted fairly.
“If farmers believe the Department have not reached the right decision in an area-based scheme, they can avail of this review procedure. It will give them the chance to provide relevant evidence that wasn’t available when the initial decision was made. This will help to ensure the correct outcome is achieved.”
