T4. Ms Nicholl asked the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for an update on his planned approach to tackling the important issue of animal welfare, which is among the issues that constituents raise with her most often. (AQT 404/22-27)

I thank the Member for her question. It is an important issue. I am conscious of the challenges that I have in the Department, but I will not focus on those: I will focus on what I want to do on that issue. I want to take forward a significant range of policies and legislation, but I want to take a new approach to animal welfare. It is important that I set it out today. I want to engage with stakeholders through a process of co-design, so that, together, we can agree the way forward. We have fallen behind in Northern Ireland on protections against animal cruelty. Whilst we are taking action in this first year through the Pet Abduction Act 2024, taking forward Lucy's law and other measures, there is a lot more that we need to do. I will engage in that process with stakeholders as we shape a new way forward to improve protections against animal cruelty. Nothing is off the table. Everything is up for discussion, including a register of animal cruelty offenders. I want to consider that and the issue of penalties, which we talked about. I am very keen to explore that. I want to sit in the room and work with stakeholders to prioritise the way ahead. My Department wants to work with people to get the strongest protections against animal cruelty here in Northern Ireland.

Thank you, Minister. It is really heartening to hear your plans to address that. What additional legislation or resources will be needed to carry out that work?

In a short mandate, we have two main challenges. One is the time that is available for legislation. We will look at secondary legislation because, obviously, we can progress it a bit more quickly. We will also look at primary legislation and legislative consent motions. I am not precious, folks: whatever we can do to protect against animal cruelty, I will do it. I will work with anyone, North/South and east-west. We will also look at policy.

The other main issue is budget and the resources that we can get. I understand the concerns of district councils about funding. That is why I am bidding as part of June monitoring. I am also hearing the concerns of animal welfare charities and the pressures that they are under. We will look at monitoring rounds and budgetary bids to see how we can support that. I will use every opportunity that is available to take forward actions on that. Most importantly, I want to work with stakeholders — there is a long list of what needs to be done because this place did not sit for many years — so that, together, we can prioritise what we want to do over the time ahead.