Vol. 496 No. 3
191 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food to clarify the recent announcement that his Department would accept all REP scheme plans, under the existing scheme, with land in degraded commonages pending the availability of framework plans; the reason plans from Connemara are not being processed in spite of this statement; and if he will instruct his officials to process these plans immediately. [22566/98]
The new revised REP scheme requires that a framework plan be drawn up for each commonage. The framework plans will be drawn up under the supervision of my Department and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. A sufficient number of planners have already been trained to prepare these plans. It will take some time before framework plans will be available for all commonages.
Details of an interim national framework plan have been drawn up to enable farmers with commonage to participate in REPS pending the implementation of commonage framework plans. Under these new arrangements, applications can now be processed. The new payment rates in REPS are as follows: £80 per acre for the first 100 acres; £8 per acre between 101 and 200 acres; £6 per acre between 201 and 300 acres. For the average existing REPS 80 acre farmer in an NHA, this will mean an increse in the annual payment from £4,960 to £6,400. The maximum NHA payment increases from £6,200 per annum to £9,400.
