GOVERNMENT PUSHED ON FOOT AND MOUTH COMPENSATION (Jim Hume)

GOVERNMENT PUSHED ON FOOT AND MOUTH COMPENSATION

October 23, 2007 12:00 AM

Jim Hume, MSP for the South of Scotland and Shadow Minister for Environment, has called on the SNP Government to provide sufficient funding to compensate Scottish farmers who have suffered severe financial losses as a result of the foot and mouth outbreak in Surrey.

Jim Hume said:-

"The situation facing Scottish farmers could not be more desperate, and the future of Scotland's agricultural industry looks increasingly in jeopardy. It was imperative that the SNP came forward today with an emergency funding package that adequately addresses the needs of Scotland's farmers as was done by Liberal Democrat Minister Ross Finnie in 2001.

"It is beyond belief that the Scottish Government's relations with Westminster have broken down to such an extent that they cannot agree on where the compensation payments should come from. The bottom line is that Scotland's farmers are long overdue help, and the SNP should have aside its petty squabbling with Westminster and got on with the job.

The MSP continued:-

"The Scottish Government has the powers and budget to bring forward a rescue package immediately to ease the financial and welfare crisis facing Scotland's livestock industry. The SNP must make their priority the protection of rural Scotland. Nothing less than a full and detailed compensation plan is good enough for Scotland's farming industry, and certainly not the token package announced today which, whilst welcome, makes no reference to those in the pig and cattle sectors, and which is half what has been calculated by farming representatives as being a fair settlement.

"My Libdem colleagues, Michael Moore MP, Jeremy Purvis MSP and Cllr Alec Nicol, and I will continue to press the case for Scottish agriculture."

Jeremy Purvis MSP added:-

"This will go some way to alleviate some concern that has been expressed to me over recent days about the crisis in the Borders. There are still answers to be given on whether this is all the government could have done The Cabinet Secretary has confirmed that the funding has come from unallocated money in the Scottish government, in effect underspend, this means that rather than just the £6 per animal that they are offering, it could be the £10 per animal that the NFUS has called for."