John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise this important matter and to join my colleagues on the opposite side of the House who have also seen fit to raise this matter on the Adjournment. This is a difficult issue for many farmers in County Limerick who are members of REPS and for the 50,000 farmers throughout the country who have joined the scheme in goodwill.

As chairman of the Fianna Fáil policy group on the environment, I am very aware of the excellent benefits this scheme can bring to our environment and what it has achieved since its inception in the early 1990s. Under the scheme farmers do their bit for the environment and in return are given their payment.

This has always been a front-loaded scheme with an advance payment and this is what farmers signed up to. They go to their REPS planner, put their plan in place, pay him and then expend some money on the work in the farm. They were given payment in advance and this method worked very well. Ireland is the only country in Europe to have had the benefit of an advanced front-loaded REPS. It is widely recognised we have the best REPS in Europe. In the best of good faith, farmers signed the contract for REPS 2 and REPS 3 with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food acting for the EU. It is only fair and proper that this commitment should be honoured.

The Minister is currently in a very difficult situation. We are very fortunate to have a Minister who is the best Minister for Agriculture that ever represented this country.

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