Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The farm improvement scheme, FIS, was introduced by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in July 2007 with funding of €79 million, as agreed under the partnership agreement, Towards 2016. The scheme was suspended on 31 October 2007 as applications received had reached this level of funding. It was specifically made clear, at the time of its launch, that the scheme would be terminated when this financial ceiling had been reached and this was also specifically provided for in the terms and conditions of the scheme. Some 12,675 applications were received from farmers prior to the closing date of the scheme.

These applications are being processed within the Department up to the level of funding made available for the scheme in the above-mentioned partnership agreement.

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