Vol. 436 No. 7
65 Mr. Connor asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on the need for the re-introduction of grant aid for land drainage in certain areas; and his views on the need to introduce assistance by his Department for drainage maintenance of identified major land drainage systems previously assisted by his Department but not the responsibility of the Office of Public Works.
My intention is to make optimum use of the Structural Funds which will be available to my Department in the period 1994-99 to improve the overall competitivity of the agriculture, food and forestry areas against the background of the impact of CAP reform and the GATT. With this in mind I will be giving the highest priority to developing the food industry and to such on-farm investment measures as those involving dairy hygiene improvement and pollution control.
Considerable support will also be made available in the form of headage payments in support of the incomes of farmers in the disadvantaged areas and for various rural development measures. Both of these elements are important in maintaining people in farming and securing employment in our rural areas.
In the past significant resources have been put into land drainage activities but these could not now be considered to be in the same priority categories for Structural Funding as those I have outlined. I will, however, be keeping the position with regard to the Structural Funds under review and, should further finance become available, it may be possible to consider support for some elements of drainage.
