Dept uses savings for waste scheme

By Paul Mooney

09 September 08 : Payments in 2008 by the Department of Agriculture under the Farm Waste Management Scheme have now risen to €182m with payments continuing on a weekly basis. The Department is expected to issue some €4m in payments this week.

The €182m paid to date this year is €32m ahead of the €150m allocated for 2008 to the scheme, which is effectively 100% funded by the Exchequer. The additional money has come from savings within the Department under other headings. Last year, the Department of Agriculture had almost €150m in unspent funds.

However, it is unlikely to have funding of this magnitude available in 2008 to divert to the Farm Waste Management Scheme. Once the available pool of savings is used up, the Department will have to seek further funding from the Exchequer by way of a supplementary estimate.

This week, IFA rural development chairman, Tom Turley, said that the payment of grant aid under the Farm Waste Management Scheme must continue uninterrupted and the Charter of Rights commitment on payments must be fully honoured.

Grant aid worth €182m has been paid so far in 2008, he said. "Every €1 of grant aid is matched by €2 to €3 of farmers' money. So this represents a total expenditure by farmers of some €0.5bn and, by year end, this will increase to well over €1bn. This is playing a critical role in preserving jobs in construction in rural areas in what is a difficult time.''

Timely grant payment is also essential to ensure that cash flow difficulties do not arise on farms, he said.

He also criticised the comment made this week by Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith on RTE radio that the 31 December deadline for the scheme would not be extended.

"The Minister must reverse his decision to allow grant aid to be paid to farmers who can demonstrate that they have commenced work and that building was in progress,'' he said.

"The Minister has a clear lack of understanding of the difficulties farmers and building contractors have in meeting the deadline.

"Farmers are spending vast sums of money in upgrading their farm yards to meet the highest environmental standards and the end-of-year deadline will pose a major difficulty for many farmers in achieving this objective,'' he said.