REPS penalties for one in 12

FEWER than 8% of farmers in REPS incur compliance penalties in most years., according to Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh.

Replying in the Dáil to Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton, he outlined the five most frequent kinds of non-compliance, which account for some 43% of the total. These are change in area, hedges or -stonewalls not maintained according to plans, farmyard undertakings not carried out as planned, farm boundaries not stock-proofed, and bovines not excluded from wells or watercourses. Of the €1.16 billion paid out to REPS farmers since 1994, about 1.5% has been withheld for breaches of the terms and conditions.