‘Farmers sold a pup on RDP’ — Ó Cuív

THERE will be a massive underspend of up to €400m on the GLAS and TAMS schemes by 2020, Fianna Fáil has claimed.

Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Regional Development, Rural Affairs and the Gaeltacht, is calling on the Government to address the issue by topping up payments under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANCs) scheme.

New figures, obtained by Deputy Ó Cuív in response to a parliamentary question, show that €923m is left to be spent on GLAS in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The Galway TD said even if Minster for Agriculture Michael Creed meets GLAS spend targets of around €214m a year, it will lead to an “enormous saving for the Exchequer by the end of the scheme in 2020”.

“Farmers are being sold a pup. Even if he hits €5,000 for all 50,000 participants, he will have accumulated an under- spend of €173m by 2020. On the other hand, if the average payment is €4,000, which is much more likely, that underspend goes to over €300m,” he said.

“I believe we will also see a saving of at least €100m in TAMS, which means, between GLAS and TAMS, there will be an underspend of €400m over the next three years.

“The Minister must immediately and radically top up the ANC — there is no other way out of jail. They’re pulling the wool over struggling farmers’ eyes to make a saving for the Exchequer,” he said.

Meanwhile, Eugene Murphy, Fianna Fáil TD for Roscommon/Galway, said farmers were being treated like “second-class citizens”, as they continue to wait to receive GLAS and AEOS payments.

Almost 9,000 farmers are still waiting for their 2016 GLAS payments, while more than 2,600 have not received their 2016 AEOS funds.