Some £167 million has been made available under the current Operational Programme for Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry for the control of farm pollution and dairy hygiene schemes which has been fully utilised. This includes additional funding of over £43 million provided since June 1997 of which £15.2 million is from National Exchequer funds. The additional funding has been used to cover existing commitments under the schemes.
There are currently no Structural Funds available to restore these schemes, hence the cost of any new schemes would have to be met entirely by the National Exchequer. I regard the schemes as high priority and I am continuing to pursue the question of national funding to enable their reintroduction in a more focused way.