Huge amount of applications doomed REPS scheme

THE record number of applications – 17,000 – for the 2009 REPS scheme, which closed in mid-May, may have doomed the scheme.

Faced by the highest-ever spending on REPS, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith suspended it in order to keep within its budgetary allocation over the coming years.

For the first time, more intensive farmers were free to join the current REPS 4, introduced two years ago.