Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Northern Ireland Assembly am 3:15 pm ar 17 Mehefin 2024.
I previously wrote to the UK Government asking for an update on what the Member asked about in his question, and it is correct that the independent monitoring panel has not been established. However, I do not need panels to engage with the UK Government; I do that regularly. Before the election period, I was doing it almost daily. I have meetings every month with UK Government Ministers, because I come to this job not searching for problems but looking for solutions. That is my entire focus in the Department. I said during my first Question Time and will say it again today: my ultimate aim in this Ministry is to make the whole issue of EU exit extremely boring. When other people go looking for problems, I go looking for solutions to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland, because they are tired of this. They are tired of people rehashing old arguments. They want people focusing on delivery for the citizens of Northern Ireland. We just talked about Lough Neagh. We want to deliver on that. If people want to rehash old arguments about EU exit, that is up to them. I am focusing on solutions and doing good work on veterinary medicines and other issues, because that is what I want to do as Minister.