Creed: Farm Waste Management Scheme deadline must be extended

GROWING calls for an extension to the Farm Waste Management Scheme (FWMS) deadline beyond December 31 will be raised by Fine Gael in the Dáil today.

The party’s agriculture spokesperson Michael Creed, TD, said he doesn’t accept that the deadline can’t be extended once a compelling case is made to the European Union.

“This refusal to extend the deadline is completely unjustified and I find it hard to see how the Minister and the department’s hard-headed adherence to December 31 is in anybody’s interest,” he said.

Mr Creed said all FWMS grants must be paid promptly in accordance with the farming charter and the deadline for the completion of works must be extended.

“There is no shortage of justification for this move, not least economic reasons as for many construction workers the scheme is the only game in town,” he said.

Mr Creed, speaking at the ploughing championships in Cuffesgrange, Co Kilkenny, yesterday said the Government must give serious consideration to the situation.

It must consider how the weather over the summer has hindered works, how deferred planning decisions have delayed the commencement of works and how builders, their suppliers and manufacturers have hundreds of orders on their books which they cannot complete by the deadline.

IFA president Pádraig Walshe has meanwhile criticised Minister Brendan Smith for what he said was his failure to make a case to Brussels for an extension to the end of year deadline for the scheme.

Mr Walshe said farmers are investing over €1.5 billion this year in improving their farmyard facilities. This investment is generating a huge economic impact in rural areas.

“With an added value of over €1 billion, the spin off effect in terms of jobs related to suppliers and services is around 20,000 for the year.”