Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)

Last year we took advantage of the Commission's transitional rules to make special provision for REPS 2 contracts that expired up to 30 November 2006 to be extended for a further year. This option is no longer available to us because the EU regulations governing REPS 2 and REPS 3 expired on 31 December 2006. It is now legally impossible to approve or extend contracts under either of those schemes. Farmers whose REPS 2 contracts are expiring have had two opportunities to transform their undertakings into new five-year contracts in REPS 3. We are doing our best to make sure REPS 4 will be available for them as early as possible.

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