Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott has hit out at DARD following the mis-calculations that has emerged with figures released showing that the much discussed Crossnacreevy site was not worth the originally estimated £200m, but only £3m-6m.

"When this issue was first raised last year by Minister Gildernew", Mr Elliott recalled, " many members of the farming community were rightly outraged.

"Very few people that I spoke to wanted DARD to sell the experimental centre at Crossnacreevy as it is responsible for a wealth of vital work for the agricultural industry. Of course, at the time we were told that the sale of the site had the potential to raise funds of up to £200m.

"We were told that the agreement for the sale would allow the Department of Finance and Personnel to provide the support for the Farm Nutrient Scheme to the value of £90 million pounds, with the rest going to the DFP, with no guarantee that it would ever find its way back to the farming sector.

"Now however, we are told that the site is barely worth even 3% of the original estimate, meaning that it is worth no more at this moment in time than a maximum of £6 million pounds."

"How", he wondered, " are the farming community in Northern Ireland supposed to have any faith in the Minister and the Department when they take the prize assets of our sector, place incredibly wrong estimates against their worth and destroy a wonderful resource?

"It simply isn't good enough. There needs to be some explaining done to the farming community, otherwise the little confidence people have in the ability of those at the top will continue to decline."

Mr Elliott said the sale of the experimental site at Crossnacreevy meant that DARD resources situated at the site would have to move 'at a cost of millions'.

"After you take the cost of this move away from the possible £6 million revenue from the sale of the site, what would be left would simply be 'coppers' for the farming community here.

"The amount of money that would be left following DARD's move away from Crossnacreevy would be minimal, if anything at all. Putting it is simple words, the whole situation is a disaster and has shown Minister Gildernew to be incompetent and incapable of providing for the farming community as she should."

Mr Elliott said he had warned the Minister that she was playing with fire when she decided to sell the Crossnacreevy site. She didn't listen and now she would get burned. The whole mess is a disaster for all involved, embarrassing for the Department and harmful to the farming community that deserves and needs strong leadership, he added.