Vol. 465 No. 8
21 Mr. E. Byrne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the monitoring procedures, if any, that have been put in place to ensure that relaxed regulations do not militate against environmental practices in farming in view of the most recent changes to the REP scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10594/96]
I can assure the Deputy that the recent modifications to REPS are designed to enhance the environmental impact of the scheme on the participant farms and, by extension, on the countryside as a whole. All of the changes introduced take account of the experience gained from the operation of the scheme to date and further changes give practical effect to modifications to the scheme which were approved by the European Commission. The monitoring procedures my Department has put in place are essentially to ensure that participant farmers are complying with the scheme's requirements and to further ensure that payment will only issue to participant farmers who have established an entitlement to payment.
A significant feature of the revision is the introduction of a penalty system under which fines vary from 5 per cent to 100 per cent of payments. Where serious breaches of the rules occur a participant will be excluded from the scheme, will have to refund payments made and will not be allowed to reapply for up to two years.
