Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The deadline of 31 December 2008 for completion of work by farmers under the revised farm waste management scheme introduced by my Department in March 2006 is a condition of the EU state aid approval for the scheme. The European Commission has since reaffirmed that it expects Ireland to respect this deadline strictly. This has been made known to all farmers who have been approved to commence work under the scheme and I have urged farmers to ensure that such work is completed and a payment claim submitted to my Department before the end of the year.

Where the farmer is unable to complete all the approved works before the deadline, grant-aid will be paid by my Department on separate and discrete units of work which are completed to the Department's technical specifications subject again to fulfilment of the conditions regarding the deadline set out above. Full details regarding this matter were sent by the Department to all approved farmers under the scheme some time ago.

I have confirmed previously on a number of occasions that there will be no extension to the deadline concerned. The measures adopted in Northern Ireland in regard to its own scheme, which is substantially different to ours, are a matter for the authorities there.

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