Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, said that the First Minister’s inflexible approach to the introduction of the Welsh Government’s new agri-environment scheme, Glastir, was ‘very disappointing.’
In questioning the First Minister during weekly questions, Mr George asked Mr Jones whether in light of the relatively poor uptake of Glastir and the lack of confidence in the scheme from the farming community, if he would consider the re-introduction of a Tir Mynydd scheme in order to support agriculture in Wales’ most difficult to farm areas.
Commenting after questioning the First Minister, Mr George said:
“I believe the First Minster has become extremely blinkered on this issue, particularly when confidence in the future of agri-environment in Wales has been so dented.
“When you have farming unions saying that they are fighting against their own government for survival and individual farmers saying that they would rather farm in Scotland than in Wales, then we have a real problem on our hands.
“Glastir has clearly become a white elephant and this is putting £89m of EU funding at risk.
“The First Minister’s refusal to accept that, coupled with his rejection of any reintroduction of a successful agri-environment, like Tir Mynydd, just shows how out of touch this Welsh Government is with the farming community in Wales.”
