Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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587. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the organic farming scheme will open again for applications for new entrants and for existing producers. [32701/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The new Organic Farming Scheme has proved extremely successful, attracting more new applicants than any scheme before, and encouraging a significant number of Irish farmers to convert to organic farming systems.  This is a co-funded scheme, supported jointly through the Rural Development Programme by the EU and the Irish Exchequer.

At this point in time, the budget allocated to the new scheme in Ireland’s Rural Development Programme has been fully committed and all targets set for the scheme within the RDP have already been achieved.  Any possible re-opening of the scheme could only be considered in the context of the available budget in the overall Rural Development Programme.