Vol. 560 No. 1
222 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food, further to Parliamentary Question No. 130 of 6 November 2002 about the backlog in REP schemes payment to farmers (details supplied), the number of REP scheme applications in County Sligo and County Leitrim which have not to date been paid; the total amount of moneys held up for each county; the immediate steps which are in place to process the payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1252/03]
Because of temporary human resources issues, about 80 REPS applications in Sligo and 40 in Leitrim are now outside the target periods for processing set down in the Protocol on Direct Payments to Farmers. Until processing is completed it is not possible to say what volume of payments these applications represent. Staff have been temporarily redeployed to the Leitrim office and it is hoped to have the backlog cleared within the next few weeks. The position in the Sligo office is also being actively examined and I am hopeful that a solution can be found shortly.
223 Mr. Connaughton asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food his views on recent speculation that investment in the rural environment protection scheme is to be severely curtailed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1296/03]
REPS is a demand-led scheme and I have made provision for €190 million in my Department's 2003 Estimates. This is an increase of 12% on the €173 million expenditure outurn for REPS in 2002.
