Northern Ireland

Edwin Poots claims regional food and drinks sector is significantly bigger than his department's statistics show

Minister for Agriculture and the Environment Edwin Poots
Minister for Agriculture and the Environment Edwin Poots Minister for Agriculture and the Environment Edwin Poots

EDWIN Poots appears to have overstated the numbers working in the north's agriculture and food and drink sectors in an bid to highlight the "damage" the alternative to his proposed climate change legislation could do.

The minister claimed the related sectors employ 113,000 people – even though statistics produced by his own department suggest the number is considerably smaller.

The latest figures published by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs this year state that the estimated number of direct full-time employee equivalents in the food and drink sector is 25,000, while the total number of farmers and agricultural workers is just over 51,000, and includes directors, partners and spouses.

Asked on Radio Ulster this week about the impact of Clare Bailey's private members bill, which includes a 2045 net zero target, Mr Poots said he could not support a bill "which is going to damage those 113,000 jobs out in the rural economy and strip away tens of thousands of them".

When asked by The Irish News for the source of the data cited by the minister, the department pointed to "research" conducted by the Northern Ireland Food & Drink Association.

"That report gives a figure of 113,000 jobs which are supported by the food and drink industry in Northern Ireland," a Daera spokesperson said.

"As the agrifood industry is a key part of the NI food and drink industry there is a potential impact on these jobs."

The department spokesperson said the figure cited by the minister was also included in the recent industry-commissioned KMPG report that examined the impact of Ms Bailey's bill

It states that "51,000 jobs were contributed by NI agriculture sector directly in 2020".