EU confirms £250 million a year for key farm schemes

By Des Maguire

The Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh said this week he was confident that the Government would make significant funding available in the National Plan to add to the £1.74 billion that the EU has allocated for REPS, Early Retirement, Headage and Forestry premia between 2000 and 2006.

The National Plan is expected to be finalised within the next month.

Joe Walsh said he was very pleased at the size of the Commission's allocation which was confirmed yesterday (Wednesday). "It represents strong EU support for the type of programmes we are already implementing and which have been very successful here," he said.

The annual average funding is £248 million a year and represents 7.3 per cent of total EU aid. Ireland has got the sixth highest percentage allocation of the fifteen EU member states, with France and Germany doing best.

The Department will now have to draw up a national rural development plan for Ireland separate from the National Plan to put the four schemes into a co-ordinated framework. This in turn will have to be evaluated and sent for Commission approval so it is likely to be well into next year before details of the new REPS and Farm Retirement Schemes are known.

Depending on the level of recoupment rates agreed with the Commission and the extent of national financing from the Government there could still be different rates of payments to farmers in Objective 1 areas and Objective l in transition areas under some of the schemes.

However Department sources indicate that they are confident that there will be sufficient funding to maintain expenditure on the schemes at '99 levels and to allow for new entrants.

There is also the possibility of adding in a 2 per cent inflator to the annual EU allocation if the Commission are satisfied that uptake of the schemes merit it.

Commenting on the size of the Commission's allocation IFA president Tom Parlon said it was not sufficient to ensure the continuation of the schemes at their present levels unless the Government increases its national contribution.

The IFA president said that the allocation annually falls short by £34 million on what was available from the EU in 1999.