Teagasc Advisory Service Completes Record Number of REPS Plans

The Teagasc Advisory Service completed approximately 7,000 REPS plans in 2006, helping its farmer clients secure an additional €50m in REPS payments. This number of completed applications brings the Teagasc REPS client base to a total of 25,000, or 45% of the total number of farmers now in REPS.

Teagasc Acting Director, Tom Kirley, said: "Our advisers pulled out all the stops to ensure that every farmer wishing to join Reps 3 did so in advance of the closing date of 13 October last. In the 9 months of 2006 while the REPS 3 scheme was open, almost double the number of plans was completed compared to 2005. An additional 30 temporary staff worked with existing planners in completing the applications. Farmers who were not in a position to join REPS 3 at the time should begin preparing for REPS 4."

"Work in the advisory service is now focused on the Farm Waste Management Scheme and Teagasc is allocating all available resources to clear the backlog of farmers wishing to submit applications for this scheme." he concluded.

Since the opening of the Farm Waste Management Scheme in May 2006, the Teagasc Advisory Service has prepared 4,800 applications and a further 1,800 are currently being processed. However, a waiting list of 4,500 potential applications remains and this number may increase following a series of cross compliance meetings planned for November.

The Teagasc Authority at its last meeting decided that Teagasc will write to the Department of Agriculture and Food to highlight the number of farmers awaiting assistance with the scheme.

Without some further modification to the application process, it is possible that some thousands of farmers may not have their applications for the Farm Waste Management Scheme dealt with before the scheme closes on 31 December 2006.