Farmers in Fermanagh can expect to receive single farm payments by October, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has said.

Minister Poots told Stormont on Monday that the single farm payments “will be distributed this year ahead of what we did under the European Union”.

“We are capable of delivering everything that we need to by October this year as opposed to waiting until December, which was imposed on us through the European Union,” he said.

Minister Poots was responding to Sinn Fein MLA Jemma Dolan who said she recognised post-Brexit “the importance of unfettered access to the British market given that 75 per cent of our agri-food products go there”. The Fermanagh and South Tyrone representative asked: “Does he agree that the failure to include minimum food standards in the Agriculture Bill and plans to phase out farm support payments mean that the British Government are opening the door to cheap food imports, which will suppress the market and price our local farmers and agri-food products out of the British market?”

“I can only go by the Conservative Party manifesto, which indicated that a Conservative Government would sustain them for the lifetime of the current Parliament,” replied Minister Poots.

“That is all that a manifesto can commit to. I am not aware of any phasing out of support for agriculture. I see huge benefits in governments supporting agriculture, especially for the environment. Abandonment of land has proven to be very detrimental to biodiversity, the environment and all of that. I do not believe that the UK Government are going down that route. I would be opposed to that, and I think that the House would be opposed to it. We will seek to ensure that that is the case,” he said.

Minister Poots said his Department will soon have a discussion with Agriculture Committee “about whether some of the larger payments coming for some single farm payments is appropriate or whether we invest in young people who want to come into farming and reduce the larger payments as a result”.

“We may want to do some of the same things as England; we may want to do some things that are completely different. I will want to do what is best for the people I represent, irrespective of what people do elsewhere,” Minister Poots said.