Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Nitrates Action Programme: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Michael Moroney:

I would say at this stage that a significant number of them have. They have purchased the equipment off their own bat, exclusive of grant aid mainly because contractors will drive technology on. They are very quick to move on with new technology and new systems and they identified that LESS is what their customers need. It is important to make the point that when grant aid becomes applicable to machines like LESS machines, typically the cost of the machine rises in accordance with the level of grant aid. What we are finding is that FCI members who purchased machines without a grant aid facility have had to pay extra for those machines simply because they are eligible for grant aid so the price rose accordingly. There was a double penalty. Some of them lost the opportunity to get a grant but when they invested in their own equipment, they have had to pay more as a consequence of the machines being grant aided. That is an unfortunate reality but that is what has happened.

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