The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has launched a consultation on the Strategic Environmental Assessment Report for the ammonia strategy and the operational protocol.

The environmental report forms part of the process of strategic environmental assessment required by The Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004.

The Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Andrew Muir said: "This consultation is part of the process associated with the ammonia strategy and operational protocol, I invite opinions to be expressed during the consultation which runs for eight weeks and closes on April 25, 2025.

"In recent months, I have been constructively engaging with key stakeholders on the issue of ammonia and this shall continue,” he added.

Members of Stormont’s Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, were briefed on the “fairer and more proportionate” penalty system developed under the new Sustainable Agriculture Programme (SAP).

The new programme, due to come into effect in 2026, replaces the current Farm Support and Development Programme, and was developed in response to a public consultation on future agricultural policy proposals for Northern Ireland, which took place in December 2021.

According to the programme’s authors, the new penalty system is “simpler” in form in comparison to its predecessor and functions solely on the basis of whether a breach has been committed.

It will also include a few new additions, including a guidance letter and mandatory training courses.

In a bid to make penalties more proportionate to the breaches, a fifth level of severity will be introduced to make it easier to differentiate between them.

Head of the area-based schemes division with DAERA, Dr. Jason Foy explained: “The proposed penalty matrix is simpler. We have removed the complexity of the current regime by discarding factors such as permanence on farm and the intentional stroke negligence factor."