The Irish Department of Agriculture is to find out next week if the Rural Development Plan (RDP) is to be formally agreed by the EU Commission. The Commission has received 118 plans from across the EU, with Spain alone having 24 different regional plans.

The Commission has until 3 October to respond to Ireland’s RDP, which was submitted by the Department in early August. Once formally passed, the RDP moves to further informal discussions between the Department and the EU on the finer points of the schemes. The Department is currently working on the terms and conditions of the schemes such as GLAS and the beef data and genomics programme.

The RDP plan is expected to be finalised before December, which will enable the Department to roll out the schemes under the new Rural Development Programme in early 2015.

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Peter Young