The typically small farms in Northern Ireland rely on subsidies for survival. A Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report said: “The Committee heard evidence that the UK Government’s ‘public money for public goods’ proposal and its desire to improve farm efficiency, while broadly welcomed, was designed with England in mind and could have a serious impact on farms in Northern Ireland if the scheme is not modified to reflect the very different character of farming in Northern Ireland.”
Herefordtimes.com further quoted from the report: “The Committee urges the Government to revise its definition of public goods to include the survival of farms as ‘essential rural assets’, and to commit area payments beyond 2022, with small farms and those reliant on pasture and husbandry on marginal land particularly in mind.”
