Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Health Check agreement €120 million in additional modulation funds will be allocated to Ireland's Rural Development Programme over a four year period beginning in 2010. This funding may only be spent on measures addressing the new and ongoing challenges of climate change adaptation and mitigation, renewable energies, water management, biodiversity, innovation measures relating to these areas and the restructuring of the dairy sector.

I requested submissions on the measures to be funded by modulation from the bodies consulted on the initial draft of the Rural Development Programme. Almost forty submissions were received and they cover a broad area including agri environment measures, energy crops, forestry, the dairy sector and environmental projects in rural communities. Any measures to be funded must fit in with existing measures in the RD Regulation and must be clearly linked to the new challenges. The additional modulation must be co-financed from national funds at the rate of 25%.

I am currently considering how these funds can be used to optimum effect to develop Irish agriculture within the terms laid down in the EU regulations and also taking account of the current budgetary constraints. All submissions received have been examined carefully and will be a useful input to my decisions on these matters. The revised Rural Development Strategy and Programme must be submitted to the Commission by 15 July 2009 and the funds will become available in 2010.