THE IRISH Farmers’ Association has described the cutting back in numbers and payments in the new agri-environmental scheme as “unacceptable”.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said the new Agri-Environmental Options Scheme (AEOS), announced yesterday, would have an expenditure limit of €25 million this year and would pay only a maximum of €4,000 to farmers.
The scheme, set up last year to replace the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps), had a €5,000 upper limit, and it was expected 10,000 farmers leaving Reps this year would be accommodated.
Mr Coveney said the reality of putting together the scheme was all the more challenging because the previous government had announced an AEOS without having put the necessary funding or budgetary arrangements in place.
“This was not only irresponsible, but misleading to farmers, particularly in the run-up to a general election, and should not have happened,” he said.
The scheme, which will open on May 16th, would provide the majority of farmers coming out of Reps this year with an opportunity to enter a new agri-environmental scheme, the Minister added.
However, IFA president John Bryan, who sought an urgent meeting with the Minister, said rowing back on a budget decision was unacceptable. Up to 2,000 farmers would not now be able to join the scheme, and those who did qualify would get a lower payment than what was promised.
The decision would be devastating for low-income farmers who depend greatly on direct supports such as AEOS, and 10,000 farmers coming out of Reps had been hoping to join the new one, Mr Bryan said.
The IFA rural development chairman Tom Turley said more than half of farmers who were likely to apply would now be rejected as a result of Mr Coveney’s decision.