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MEPs lobby EU to extend farm waste works deadline (29/10/08)

October 29, 2008 at 6:01 pm Leave a comment

Leinster MEPs say they face an ‘uphill battle’ in attempting to secure an extension to the December 31st deadline for the Farm Waste Management Scheme. It’s estimated that over 10,000 Irish farmers will be unable to complete works required under the scheme by the end of the year, due to difficult environmental and economic conditions. A number of Irish MEPs met with officials from the European Commission this week to call for the deadline to be extended by at least three months. But after the meeting, they said the only chance of postponing the closing date was if the Irish government made a direct and urgent plea to Europe.
‘Thousands of Irish farmers just can’t comply in time, because of a combination of factors including bad weather, planning delays, and problems securing building contractors in the current financial climate,’ said MEP Liam Aylward. The Fianna Fáil MEP warned that although he would continue to lobby at EU level, an active government campaign was necessary if there was to be any extension to the scheme.
Meanwhile his Fine Gael counterpart MEP Mairead McGuinness urged the Commission to consider the environmental impact of not extending the deadline. ‘They should see that allowing farmers complete work under the scheme makes sense from an environmental as well as an agricultural perspective,’ she said.
Ms McGuinness said the government were partly to blame for ‘this sorry impasse’, because of its delay in implementing the Nitrates Directive. ‘Farmers are being penalised because of government inaction,’ she said. ‘Irish farmers want to comply with the Nitrates Directive. They need to invest to do that, but they can’t without grant aid under the Farm Waste Management Scheme.’

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