MORE than 20,000 farmers are failing to claim up to £350 million available to them under the EU Rural Environment Protection Scheme, according to a leading agricultural consultant.
Mr Philip Farrelly, whose company prepares the five year plans required to enter the scheme, said more than 20,000 farmers who could qualify for the EU scheme for environmentally sensitive farming had not applied.
They are missing out on an opportunity to receive over £17,500 through the REPS scheme while at the same time making a positive contribution to the environment. The average annual payment to farmers under REPS is £3,700.
He said applications would need to double if the ambitious target of 40,000 farms set by the Department was to be achieved.
Introducing a guide to the scheme, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Jimmy Deenihan, said REPS was a recognition of the non economic service which farmers could make towards securing the environment for everyone.
Mr Deenihan said that in 1994, 3 per cent of the budget of the Common Agricultural Policy was, allocated to agri environmental measures.
A spokesman for the River Suck Action Committee, a Roscommon/Galway based organisation catering for nearly 800 smallholders living along the river, said last night that it would be asking the Department to give some indication of what would happen when REPS schemes finished in three years.
Mr Sean Treacy said: "We understand that most of the river and many of the adjoining farms have been designated as natural heritage areas and special areas of conservation. Unfortunately, no one has spoken to the farmers about this."
He said many of the farmers on the Suck would welcome dialogue with officials about the impositions such designations would place on farmers.
"I believe that many farmers are willing to protect the environment and they might even be able to help the OPW by suggesting changes themselves, if the levels of compensation are high enough."