Jimmy Deenihan
Question:7 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the situation with respect to REP scheme III; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14754/04]
View answerThursday, 20 May 2004
Questions (7, 8)
Johnny Brady
Question:48 Mr. J. Brady asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food when REP scheme III will commence; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[14785/04]
View answerOral answers (3 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 48 together.
As I stated in my reply to Question No. 1, the European Commission presented Ireland's proposals for amendments to REPS to the agricultural structures STAR committee meeting on 11 May 2004, with a recommendation that they be approved. Following discussion on a technical issue raised by another member state, the chairman deferred the vote on the Irish proposal to the next meeting of the committee to allow for clarification of the issue by the Commission's legal services. The issue relates to the manner in which REPS payments are related to a land area, which may not be the same as the area that is subject to agri-environmental undertakings. It arose from further legal interpretation of the regulation within the Commission services since the current REPS was approved in September 2000.
Does the Minister believe this problem will be resolved by the end of next week?
I am confident that it will be resolved at the Commission services level next week as we are in continuing discussions and exchanges of information with the services. However, another STAR committee meeting will take place next month. Once we get assurances from the Commission services, we will proceed to make application forms available and crank up the system. We have an estimate of €250 million for expenditure under this enhanced scheme with a 28% increase in payments. As it is also highly relevant to the nitrates directive, we want to get moving on it.
Having made the submission in the first week of last December, we feel enough time has been wasted, although at least we will have retroactive application of the scheme from 1 March. Approximately 40,000 farmers avail of REPS II at present and we want to ensure they graduate to REPS III with the more enhanced payments as soon as possible. I hope the Commission services will agree on the clarification of the technical problem next week and I intend going ahead with the scheme then.