This article is from page 53 of the 2009-07-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 53 JPG
AN estimated 2,000 Clare farmers are facing a bleak financial future following the Department of Agri- culture’s shock closure of the REPS 4 scheme last Thursday.
Some 35,000 Irish farmers will fin- ish their environmental plans over the next three years and will now not be allowed to join the REPS 4 scheme.
The effects of this will be felt by some 2,000 Clare farmers who will also now have to plan with a further reduced Disadvantaged Area Scheme payments from 2010. The IFA called an emergency Executive Council in Portlaoise last Friday to discuss the
situation.
Mr Walshe called on the Minis- ter for Agriculture, Brendan Smith to immediately come forward with a new meaningful scheme for the farmers effected by the latest round of cuts. “The previous budget cuts plus this proposed cut will hit the hard pressed livestock sector espe- cially hard,” he said.
‘Farmers are outraged at these de- cisions at a time when farm incomes are at their lowest level in almost a decade and tens of thousands of farm families are struggling to survive.”
The ICSA Rural Development Chairman, Gabriel Gilmartin has said the news of the closure of REPS 4 is another nail in the coffin of farm-
ers and will cause many to question their future in farming.
“This decision is wholly unaccept- able and is further evidence of a total lack of understanding on the Govern- ment’s part of what measures are in fact needed to encourage economic activity in rural Ireland,” he said.
“Under the new agri environment scheme farmers will have to apply without knowing whether they will be accepted or not and they will have no idea what the rate of payment will be. Modulated money was intended to create additional rural develop- ment funding, not to facilitate the elimination of existing schemes.”
Meanwhile, while announcing the cuts, the Minister for Agriculture
also announced proposals for spend- ing €207 million in EU funding for Irish farmers over the next four years.
These proposals relate to the use of unspent Single Payment Scheme and Modulation funds and the European Economic Recovery Programme from 2010. The minister said that his proposals reflected the outcome of consultations with the various stake- holders over recent months.
In addition to this Minister Smith confirmed details of a new €113 million targeted scheme for on-farm investment to support a number of specific categories of farmers and focused on supporting productive in- vestment.