Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The new Organic Farming Scheme has proved extremely successful, attracting more new applicants than any scheme before, and encouraging a significant number of Irish farmers to convert to organic farming systems. This is a co-funded scheme, supported jointly through the Rural Development Programme by the EU and the Irish Exchequer. At this point in time, the budget allocated to the new scheme in Ireland’s Rural Development Programme has been fully committed and all targets set for the scheme within the RDP have already been achieved.

However, my Department keeps a close eye on expenditure under all headings of the RDP and if it appears that additional funds are likely to become available, I will consider the possibility of reopening this scheme in a very targeted fashion.