Johnny Brady (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The deadline of 31 December 2008 for completion of work by farmers under the revised farm waste management scheme introduced by the Department in March 2006 is a condition of EU state aid approval for the scheme. The European Commission has since reaffirmed that it expects Ireland to respect strictly that deadline. The terms and conditions of the scheme made it clear that payments of grant aid were conditional on the time limit being respected. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has consistently held this position since the commencement of the scheme.

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