Disadvantaged areas scheme ‘vital’

THE retention and expansion of the disadvantaged areas payments scheme must be one of Mary Coughlan’s priorities in the CAP Rural Development Plan 2007-2014, says the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association.

ICMSA rural development committee chairperson Tommy Cooke said the payments were worth over €230 million a year and were essential support for more than 100,000 farm families in disadvantaged areas.

But the ICMSA was growing increasingly concerned about the future of these payments in the context of the EU review on the designation of areas as disadvantaged.