The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said he had delivered on his promises to the agricultural sector that any shortfall in funds from Europe would be made up in the next seven years from the Exchequer.
Speaking after the launch of the plan, which allocated £3.7 billion exclusively for agriculture, food and rural development, the Minister said this represented a 50 per cent increase on the last national plan.
"The main objective was that with relatively less money coming from Europe, the national Exchequer would make up for the shortfall and, in particular, under structural funding, where we got £1.7 billion from the EU," he said.
"I gave you a commitment that we would get matching funds from the Exchequer. We have more than fulfilled that promise," said Mr Walsh, who described yesterday as a good day for Ireland and Irish agriculture.
He said that under the rural environment protection scheme, £212 million had been allocated on an annual basis for the duration of the plan. Last year's figure was £172 million.
He said £80 million per annum was being set aside for the early retirement scheme. It cost £70 million last year. There had been scares last year that there would be no money for headage payments, he said, and we had supplementary estimates for three years, but now there was £840 million to cover this for the next seven years. "That is just over £120 million per annum and that is more than adequate to cover that area," he said.