Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The rural environment protection scheme, REPS, 4 will form part of the new rural development programme for the period 2007 to 2013. The programme was sent to the European Commission in late December and has to go through its approval process. We cannot be definite as to how long this process will take but we continue to pursue early approval. Our officials are in ongoing contact about it with our counterparts in the Commission services.

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