John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 493: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she is taking to address the delay in processing the farm waste management grant scheme; the number of farmers in County Sligo that have applied under the new farm waste management scheme; the number of applications that have been sanctioned to date; if there is sufficient personnel available in the farm development office to process the urgent applications where facilities need to be sanctioned and built for pollution control this season; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11288/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I recently introduced revised procedures in order to speed up the process of issuing approvals under the Farm Waste Management Scheme. 1,397 applications were received from farmers in County Sligo by my Department under the Farm Waste Management Scheme by the closing date of end-December 2006. This figure includes incomplete applications (e.g. missing the required drawings) and those for which planning permission has either not yet been applied for or is still awaited. Farmers and their advisers have until 29 June 2007 to submit the required drawings and, where planning permission is required, to confirm that they have applied for planning permission. Of course, approval to proceed with the works concerned cannot issue until written evidence of the issue of such planning permission has been received by my Department. To date, 370 approvals have been issued to farmers in Sligo to commence work under the Scheme.