This article is from page 26 of the 2009-02-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
MORE than 500 Clare farmers will be hit with interest charges and non- payment penalties following the Government’s decision to default on the payment of the Farm Waste Man- agement Scheme.
Farmers all over the county have taken out bank loans to fund the construction of storage facilities for farm waste following the introduc- tion of tight environmental controls in the 2007 EU nitrate regulations.
However, following the downturn in the public finances the Minister for Agriculture, Brendan Smith, has confirmed that the Government will not be able to fully fund a Govern- ment scheme to help cover the cost of some of the construction work.
These have left many Clare farmers with large bank loans that they can no longer afford to pay. It is feared in some quarters that banks will not be willing to extend more credit to farmers who cannot meet repay- ments.
“We would hope that things don’t get as bad as that. We would hope that any farmer with a decent credit history would be given some backing by the banks on this issue, especially as the banks are to blame for a good part of this situation,’ said Clare IFA Chairman, Michael Lynch.
“We will hope that the Govern-
ment will be able to help out in in- terest and charges from the bank as a result of this. The minister will be meeting with representatives from the bank later this week and the hope is that some sort of arrangement can be reached.”
More than 17,000 farmers through- out the country will be effected by the Governments failure to fully fi- nance this scheme.
IFA National President, Padraig Walshe, accused agricultural minis-
ter of abject failure and of “breaking his word” on the issue.
According to Walshe, Irish farmers who have carried out work have up to €500 million borrowed in bridging finance, which is costing them be- tween €2.5 million and €3.1 million per month.