A call on the Government to introduce a number of rural development farm schemes in advance of sanction by the European Commission has been rejected by the Department of Agriculture.
The call came from the Irish Farmers Association, which claimed there was no reason why the early retirement, farm improvement, Reps 4 and disadvantaged areas schemes should not be introduced immediately.
The schemes which form part of the 2007-2013 rural development plan and are worth up to €1 billion a year, are currently under negotiation between the department and the EU Commission, which part-funds them.
IFA rural development committee chairman Pádraic Divilly said yesterday the EU's final agreement may not come before July. He said the EU Commission allowed member states to proceed with schemes on an own-risk basis.
"It appears that the EU Commission has now approved most of the schemes at informal levels, yet farmers are not in a position to apply.
"In the case of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps) farmers who have completed the Reps 2 plan can't rejoin Reps until the new scheme is available."
Mr Divilly said the delays where causing hardship to some farmers, particularly those who were contemplating applying for the early retirement scheme.
A spokesman for Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan said that because the schemes involved were part-funded by the EU, it could not introduce them without Commission approval and would not proceed on an "own-risk basis".