REAP payment rates far too low and scheme a major disappointment - IFA farmersjournal.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from farmersjournal.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
April 13, 2021 3:10 pm
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is “not responding quickly enough” to rising building costs, especially steel, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has claimed.
According to the organisation, the increases are having a knock-on effect on items such as low emission slurry spreading (LESS) equipment and meal bins, which is adding significantly to costs for farmers doing Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) work.
Commenting on the matter, IFA Rural Development Committee chairman Michael Biggins said: “Delays in issuing approvals, coupled with Covid-19 disruption, are forcing farmers to reprice jobs – and they are finding big increases in quotations.
Department needs to respond to rising steel costs - IFA farmersjournal.ie - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from farmersjournal.ie Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The “drip feeding” of details regarding the “much-hyped so-called ‘REPS-2’ scheme” has been described as “a complete sham”, by IFA president Tim Cullinan.
The farm leader’s stinging criticism of the proposed new agri-environmental scheme – which was originally described as a programme that would be similar to the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) – follows the emergence of the latest details on the pilot this week.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee meeting Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said the scheme would be paid on a farmer’s first 10ha and would have an average payment of €4,700 under the scheme, with a potential maximum of just under €7,000.
IFA president Tim Cullinan. / Philip Doyle
The much-hyped REPS II scheme is a complete sham compared with its predecessor, IFA president Tim Cullinan has said.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue told the Sligo IFA AGM on Monday night that the pilot scheme would be paid on a farmer’s first 10ha and would have an average payment of €4,700 under the scheme, with a potential maximum of just under €7,000.
At the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee, the Minister said there would also be some costs on farmers under the new scheme due to its results-based nature.
“Slowly but surely the mask is slipping on this scheme and what is emerging is a fundamentally different scheme to the original one. It’s a complete sham and a political con job,” Cullinan said.