NFU Cymru relieved but frustrated by relief scheme for Welsh farmers

NFU Cymru has welcomed news that the Light Lamb Scheme, designed to avoid the farming industry's current welfare concerns, will begin this Saturday.

The Union welcomes the Welsh Assembly Government's recognition of the need for a scheme but is frustrated that the Welsh Assembly Government has had to scrabble around to find the financial resources necessary to fund the scheme from various budget lines outside of the Rural Affairs budget because it has no contingency funds and when it is unequivocally the responsibility of the Treasury to fund a recovery strategy that has been necessitated as a direct consequence of failings in a Government licensed laboratory which has directly compromised the livestock industry.

Dai Davies, President of NFU Cymru told Elin Jones when he met her this morning in Cardiff that the Union remains both convinced and determined that the Treasury must assist the Welsh livestock industry in its current dire economic predicament.

Mr Davies said, "We find ourselves in this predicament because of a leak of virus from a Government laboratory. It is high time that the Government accepted its responsibility for this debacle and made good the colossal costs that this has imposed upon our industry."

The Scottish Executive has today stepped in with a £19million rescue package because of the precarious state of the Scottish livestock sector. The Welsh livestock industry faces precisely the same crisis and NFU Cymru is looking to the Welsh Assembly Government to vigorously pursue its case with the Treasury to provide a similar lifeline for its farmers. Treasury must be forced to face up to its moral and financial responsibilities.

Dai Davies concluded, "Circumstances are deteriorating with every day that goes by for Welsh farmers and urgent help is needed to see the livestock industry through this unfolding disaster."