Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 December 2012
543. Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the contract with REP scheme 4 farmers was amended by reduction in payments from €200 per hectare to €170; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56598/12]
View answerMy Department was faced with a serious challenge in terms of declining budgetary resources in 2012 and while €1,312m had been provided in the Department’s Vote for 2012, this represented a 19% decrease compared to 2011. Under the circumstances, I had very difficult decisions to make and as part of the 2012 Estimate for the Department I announced a reduction in expenditure on REPS of roughly 10%. I decided that the most equitable and fair way to achieve this saving in a manner consistent with the regulations governing the scheme was by reducing the transaction costs of participating farmers from €28.03 to €5.60 on each hectare on which the transaction cost is paid. This approach did not involve amended contracts with participating REPS 4 farmers.
The alternative to this approach involved a 10% cut in payment rates to all participating farmers which would require amended sustainable management plans to be drawn up at significant cost to participating farmers. It would also have involved a lengthy process of correspondence with all scheme participants, a detailed administrative re-check of the revised plans,, resolution of queries and issues arising and inevitably, a considerable disruption and delay in payments.
