More on NI’s £60million farming subsidy mal-administration fines

The Northern Ireland Assembly’s agriculture committee is in Brussels today where they are reportedly seeking a reduction in the £60million fines imposed due to the NI Agriculture Department’s mal-administration of EU farming subsidies. But a spokesman for the EU Agriculture Commissioner has told the BBC that any reduction is unlikely. Roger Waite said he could not see the commission changing its mind on the size of the fine. “There is an appeal and a conciliation process going on which will only be …

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NI’s £60million farming subsidy mal-administration fines – Redux

The Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew, and the Chairman of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, the DUP’s Ian Paisley Jnr, teamed up today on the Stormont Live sofa to defend farmers – an aging and confused group, apparently – and to criticise media coverage of the £60 million fines imposed by the EU Commission for the department’s mal-administration of EU farming subsidies. Although, they weren’t entirely on the same page… What they did agree on was that the £60 million …

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NI Agriculture Minister: “I’m not sure anybody’s really to blame…”

BBC NI’s rural affairs correspondent, Martin Cassidy, reports on the £60 million repayment sought from the Northern Ireland Executive by the EU Commission for the maladministration, by the NI Department of Agriculture, of the annual individual subsidy claims made by farmers here. In total Europe provides 300m euros to farmers here annually while the individual subsidy claims are administered locally by the Department of Agriculture. But when the European Commission sent in its team of auditors, they discovered many of …

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