This article is from page 34 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 34 JPG
THE IFA has already set its sites on the next round of the social part- nership talk with President Padraig Walshe putting the Farm Improve- ment Scheme (FIS) as number one on his wish list from the Government.
With more than 5,000 farmers ef- fectively locked out of the scheme al- together Walshe is looking for urgent action coupled with the introduction of a flexible arrangements to allow farmers to complete work under the Farm Waste Management Scheme (FW MS).
Speaking after last week’s first bi-lateral partnership meeting, Mr Walshe said many farmers who ap- plied for the FIS between October 21, 2007 and the closure date of Oc-
tober 31, 2007 had not been approved by the Department of Agriculture to proceed with much-needed invest- ment.
“Most of this work is linked to other investments under the FWMS as well as investments to modernise and improve efficiency on farms,” he Sr NIGe
“In relation to the FWMS, as many as 33,000 farmers had yet to com- plete work under the scheme and the December 31 deadline to finish work is totally unreasonable.
“We need a flexible arrangements to be put in place to allow any farmer who has started work to be eligible for the 60 per cent grant when work is completed.”
Mr Walshe raised IFA’s serious concerns over the failure of the De-
partment of Agriculture to increase standard costs in line with the in- creased cost of structural steel, con- crete and labour.
“I would like to remind the Gov- ernment of their commitment in the charter of rights that costings would increase each year in line with gener- al building costs. Failure to do this is imposing higher net investment costs on farmers,” he continued.
A further meeting of partnership is planned for next week when IFA expect a Government response to the farm grant issues, and other demands set out in IFA’s submission.
Meanwhile, IFA countryside chair- man David Wilkinson has reacted angrily to Department of Commu- nication confirmation through the Freedom of Information Act that the
National Broadband Scheme was not getting priority attention.
“Rural homes and businesses are already years behind the rest of Eu- rope when it comes to the availability of affordable broadband. It is totally unacceptable that at times there was nobody working on ensuring that this essential initaitive is rolled out across the country,’ he said.
“It is vital that this Government investment in rural broadband is prioritised so that every rural home and business has access to affordable broadband as quickly as _ possible. The Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan, must ensure that this scandalous neglect within his depart- ment of a vital initiative 1s addressed and now has an obligation to deliver the rural broadband scheme ASAP.”