Two new stakeholder organisations have been added to the membership of Northern Ireland’s new Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) stakeholder forum.

These are the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association (NIFDA) and the Rivers Trust.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Farmers’ Union has confirmed that three representatives from the organisation will attend upcoming forum meetings. These will be rotated, depending on the subjects being discussed.

In addition, AgriSearch will form part of a technical sub-committee, which will feed into the over-arching discussions convened by the forum as a whole.

Earlier this year, the farmer-funded organisation produced a report confirming that the original NAP proposals, if implemented, would reduce the sustainability of agriculture in Northern Ireland by approximately £1.56 billion per annum.

The inaugural meeting of the NAP forum was held approximately a month ago, specifically to agree terms of reference. Significantly, there are no indications as to when the body will meet again.

So, what might be going on behind the scenes? One of the new grouping’s terms of reference was that of agreeing an independent chairperson. So, could this be the sticking point?

Rumour has it that the ‘opportunity’ of chairing the new body has gone down like a lead weight on this side of the Irish Sea.

This may be due to the perception of the job being a ‘poisoned chalice’ given the anger and acrimony that has accompanied the development of the new NAP up to now.

So, does Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Andrew Muir now have to extend the geographic footprint of his search to find a NAP forum chairperson?

If this is indeed the case, persuading those groupings from the pro-farming lobby as to a potential candidate’s bona fides could be difficult.

The likes of the UFU will never accept a forum chair who is not rock solid behind the cause of production agriculture.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. October is just around the corner.

Assuming a chair of the new forum is agreed in the not-too-distant future, it could take until the spring of next year before the body agrees its final report.

This will then go to public consultation, after which officials within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) will analyse, number crunch and produce a final ‘solution’.

Only at this stage will the matter of the new NAP be officially presented to the members of the Northern Ireland Executive.

But that could take us through to the summer of next year. At that stage, every Stormont minister and elected representative will be in full election campaign mode.

Politicians do not like making decisions at the best of times, especially so in the run-up to an election.

So we could well see the entire NAP process kicked down the road until after the completion of the February 2027 Assembly elections.