TWO agricultural consultancy firms involved in drawing up plans under which farmers are paid up to £5,000 a year for firming in an environmentally sensitive way have been suspended by the Department of Agriculture.
It was also confirmed last night that up to a dozen more companies who draw up the rural environment protection schemes (REPS) for farmers, are to be queried about plans submitted to the Department for second-year payments.
Yesterday, the Department confirmed that 170 payments for second-year participation in the scheme had been made, but of these, 40 farmers had been fined for non-compliance.
Over 200 consultancy companies are involved in preparing plans for the farming community. Already 16,685 farmers have agreed to the conditions laid down in the plans and have been paid £59 million.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, who has responsibility for REPS, confirmed last night that he initiated a "root-and-branch review" of it two months ago.
"This review has highlighted in too many eases that both the planning and compliance requirements of REPS have been deficient", he said.
"It is now incumbent on both farmers and the REPS planners to recognise that the scheme has clear terms and conditions which must be observed and complied with, or otherwise payment delays will occur and, in certain, cases, disallowances will be imposed", he said.
"Nothing short of full compliance is acceptable and until such time as deficiencies are cleared up in planning and compliance, delays will remain."
The spokesman said the Department would be writing to the planners asking them to explain why the plans had not been complied with. He said that in future, all farms involved in the scheme would be inspected by the Department to see if the conditions laid down in the agreements were being complied with.
"We know that in a number of cases, planners were prepared to sanction payments for a second year on the basis of documentation alone. We believe they must walk the farm and inspect it to ensure that the plan is being complied with", he said.
The spokesman added that payments for the second year had been delayed because of industrial action earlier in the year, the move to computerisation and the evident need to carry out more inspections.
Over £750 million is being made available to the end of the century to compensate farmers for sensitive farming which includes reducing stock rates, providing proper storage facilities for slurry, preserving habitat, ancient monuments and rare animals.