Local authorities are to receive €106m in funding to help repair flood-damaged roads, bridges, and culverts.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has promised a €5m fund set up to help businesses hit by flooding will be delivered before Christmas.

Co Meath man Eddie Downey has been elected as the new president of the IFA.

MAINTAINING farming’s existing funding levels and rectifying the sector’s age imbalance are two critical positions that must be supported by the imminent budget, warn farmer groups.

MAINTAINING farming’s existing funding levels and rectifying the sector’s age imbalance are two critical positions that must be supported by the imminent budget, warn farmer groups.

AT least 94,000 farmers will be paid €444m of single farm payments in the week starting October 17 — €46m more than was paid at the same time last year, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney. (The payment window allowed under EU rules is October 16, 2011 to June, 2012).

IFA rural committee chairman Tom Turley has described as unacceptable the “row back” by the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney on not increasing the AEOS Natura payment from €75 to €150/ha, and said it will result in around 6,000 farmers getting a lower payment than they expected when they joined the scheme.

FEWER than 7,000 farmers have applied to join the land use scheme AEOS 2, with pressure mounting on the Government to pay out €8 million due to up to 9,000 farmers for last year’s scheme.

THE credibility of the environmental farming scheme AEOS 2 has been undermined by late payments and anticipated shortfalls, according to the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).

THE IFA and the disadvantaged areas community group Irish Rural Link are at loggerheads over how best to distribute European funds to support community development in rural Ireland.

HUNDREDS of irate farmers visited their local TDs’ clinics at the weekend to voice their anger at a 50% cut in funding for the environmental farm scheme AEOS.

SUFFICIENT EU funds must be made available to support key rural development measures, IFA National Rural Development chairman Tom Turley said at a special meeting of European farmer group COPA.

THE Irish Farmers’ Association’s rural development chairman, Tom Turley, has called on the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith to use savings in the Department of Agriculture’s capital budget to commence payment of the final 20% of the Farm Waste Management Scheme before the end of the year.

THE Government has been warned that the Leader programme will collapse unless bureaucracy and red tape are removed and companies are given more flexibility.

CREDIT difficulties are holding up progress in the LEADER rural development scheme, for which funding of more than €425 million is allocated for the six years to 2013.

GRANTS to compensate farmers for leaving eco-sensitive lands untouched need greater flexibility and must guarantee delivery of monies by October 1, says the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).

FARMERS across the country have embarked on a campaign of challenge to government politicians to ensure that concerns about the proposed Agri Environmental Option Scheme (AEOS) are addressed.

IFA PRESIDENT John Bryan said that he would be contacting the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith immediately to highlight some serious shortcomings that need to be addressed in the new Agri-Environmental Scheme to replace REPS, which the Department of Agriculture is proposing.

THE new agri-environment scheme will benefit up to 10,000 participants and will provide a maximum payment of €5,000, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith has revealed.

PAYMENTS under REPS 4 have commenced, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith has announced, with over €33 million being issued to farmers in the last week.

THE Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has been urged to start inspections under the Fodder Aid Scheme immediately.

THE Irish Farmers Association (IFA) yesterday called on Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith to provide details of the new agri-environment scheme which he plans to introduce in 2010.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has appealed to his grumbling backbenchers for loyalty while conceding he got things wrong as leader of Fianna Fáil.

THE second instalment of REPS 4 payments for 2008, amounting to some €12 million, will be paid in the coming week to over 11,000 farmers, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith announced yesterday.

SOME of the wettest spring weather on record is adding to the woes of farmers already under pressure with cash flow problems.

AGRICULTURE Minister Brendan Smith has continued to resist intense pressure to extend the December 31 deadline for completion of the Farm Waste Management Scheme.

THE issue of farmers who had installation aid applications in the pipeline, but not completed prior to the suspension of the scheme on October 15 will now be addressed.

MANY farmers will have difficulty in completing work under the farm waste management scheme before the year-end deadline, the IFA has warned.

AN immediate payout of Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS 4) payments by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was sought by the Irish Farmers’ Association yesterday.

FARM leaders have criticised European Commission changes to the payment system for the new Rural Environment Protection Scheme — REPS 4.