EU turns spotlight on the value for money offered by rural schemes

THE European Court of Auditors and the European Commission are putting increased emphasis on measuring what the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) and other agri-environmental measures are delivering in terms of value for money.

Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith told the Teagasc REPS conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday that this was hardly surprising, when one considered the huge amounts of money being put into these schemes.

Mr Smith said since REPS began in 1994, Irish and European taxpayers between them have paid more than €2 billion to farmers.