A rocky launch for new REAP
MORE funding and major changes will need to be made to the pilot environmental scheme currently being introduced and that will run for two years from 2021 to the end of 2002, according to Galway IFA.
Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, who announced details of the new REAP scheme last week, described it as ‘ambitious, innovative and exciting’.
However, the IFA haven’t shared in the Minister’s enthusiasm for the pilot, claiming that it was underfunded while also excluding land that had heather growing on it – in effect, the majority of designated lands.
The IFA have also expressed concerns that the scheme is laden down with rafts of terms and specific conditions that will not make it a farm friendly proposition.
Another concern raised by the IFA is the fact that each agri-consultant involved with the scheme is being limited to just 10 farmers – lobbying has taken place to try and change this.
Galway IFA Chairperson, Anne Mitchell, said that they had the ‘most serious of concerns’ about the payment levels to farmers and the overall funding levels for the scheme.
“By his own admission, Minister McConalogue has stated that the average annual payment under the scheme will be of the order of €4,700 and we are extremely concerned at this low level of payment.
“We are also questioning the logic behind limiting the number of clients a consultant can have to 10 and why the majority of designated lands would be excluded from the pilot scheme,” said Anne Mitchell.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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