Deadline looms for additional Rural Development funds
22 May 2009
Jim Allister MEP has said an additional 5.4 million Euros could be made available to farmers to be distributed via the Rural Development Programme. In consequence of the CAP Health Check and subsequent discussions which followed, Northern Ireland is entitled to draw down 4 million Euros of unspent CAP funds, and 1.4 million Euros to be made available as part of a European Economic Recovery Package.
The MEP said,
“Clearly, aspects of the current Rural Development Programme are drastically under-funded, in particular those axis 1 measures where support can be directed to enhancing agricultural competitiveness. On the basis that only approximately 1100 of 9200 applications are to receive funding under the recent tranche of the farm modernisation programme, clearly this measure requires additional funding. Furthermore, I believe a substantial share of these funds should go towards dairy restructuring, to implement the recommendations which are set to come forward from the ongoing Northern Ireland dairy industry study.”
“I understand Northern Ireland officials are currently in negotiations with the UK Treasury about drawing down these funds. I have again pressed the UK Government to make these additional funds available, and not to let the British rebate get in the way of the urgent need to modernise farm infrastructure, and to restructure our dairy industry in advance of the abolition of milk quotas post-2015.”
“It will be for DARD to decide how these new funds will be re-allocated, with a decision on this to be taken by the end of June. While there is a possibility that these funds could go into such general items as rural broadband provision, other EU funding programmes are already addressing this through substantial financial investment. Therefore, I have sought assurances that these funds will be directed to where the need is most, including dairy restructuring”.
ENDS
