March 3, 2021 6:05 pm
Farmers need the government’s promised new agri-environmental pilot scheme to be a “meaningful scheme – with a base payment of €10,000”, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
Commenting on this, IFA president Tim Cullinan said the “REPS pilot results-based scheme” – proposed by the Department of Agriculture, based on the “much-hyped commitment” in the Programme for Government – needs to deliver “real money” to farmers.
The president led a delegation including National Rural Development Committee chairman Michael Biggins and National Hill Committee chairman Flor McCarthy to meet Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue about the new scheme this morning (Wednesday, March 3).
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Agri-environment pilot designed to fail - ICMSA
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February 16, 2021 12:29 pm
The next agricultural environmental scheme – dubbed the “new REPS” by numerous commentators – has got to be index linked to 1994, the year of the original Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), according to the arguments of one farmer representative group.
The Individual Farmers of Ireland is the group that organised the tractor demonstration protests in Dublin in December 2019 and January 2020, taking to the streets of the capital over beef prices at the time.
Claiming that “farmers are being squeezed harder and harder from all sides”, group spokesperson James Geoghegan pointed to the aging farmer profile, stating:
“Our CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] payments are being eroded and now our new REPS scheme is heading to be another disaster.