Jim O'Keeffe
Question:7 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the support which will be available from his Department for the maintenance and development of walkways over farmland. [9058/03]
Written Answers - Rural Environment Protection Scheme.
Supplementary measure 5 of the first rural environmental protection scheme provided for payments to farmers who undertook to give public access to their land for environmentally friendly leisure and sporting activities. However there is no supplementary measure of this kind in the current scheme. Unlike the regulation governing the first REPS, the EU Council Regulation under which the new scheme is implemented includes no provision for a public access measure as part of the EU co-funded agri-environment programme. In an effort to secure the continued availability of public access as part of REPS, my Department made proposals to the European Commission for the inclusion of the measure in the new scheme as a state aid fully funded by the Exchequer. However the Commission indicated that a public access measure was not admissible under the regulation, even as a State aid.
Farmers who are still in the first REPS and undertook supplementary measure 5 will continue to receive payment for it until the end of their existing agreements.