Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 400: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if the fears of farmers in relation to the tight deadlines and timescale of the new farm waste management package will be allayed by extending deadlines for applications and completions by six months, supplementing funding in the event of over-shooting allocations, reviewing official Department costings of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16422/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The new Farm Waste Management Scheme was introduced by my Department on 24 March 2006 under the 2000-2006 EU Rural Development Programme. As the current EU rural development round closes at the end of this year, applications can only be accepted under the revised Scheme up to the end of 2006. In view of this short time-frame, I have decided that applications can be accepted by my Department as soon as any required planning permission has been applied for to the relevant local authority and evidence of this application provided to the Department.

A sum of €43 million is available in this year's estimates for the Scheme and I am satisfied that sufficient funding will be made available for the duration of the Scheme to finance the likely demand. The Standard Costings used to calculate grants under the Scheme are currently under review.

Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if grant aid at a rate of 40 per cent will be made available for mobile sheep handling units, to be payable to co-operatives of farmers and contractors to make sheep handling more simple; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16423/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The revised Farm Waste Management Scheme is intended to assist farmers, including the sheep sector, comply with the additional requirements of the Nitrates Regulation. Grant aid is not available under the Scheme for mobile sheep handling units. Aid for the provision of such units will be considered by my Department in the context of the on-farm investment schemes which will be put in place within the framework of the EU Rural Development Round which comes into effect in January 2007.