Details emerge of new €10-per-ewe scheme
IFA National Sheep Committee Chairman John Lynskey said details of the new €10 per ewe sheep scheme were presented to IFA at a meeting of the Rural Development Monitoring Committee this week.
John Lynskey said the new scheme is a very positive development for the sheep sector. He said following an intensive campaign in the lead up to the General Election, IFA secured €25m additional funding for the new scheme in the Programme for Government.
John Lynskey said it is critical that the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed and his Department fully takes on board the views of farmers in working out the operational details of the new scheme and keeps the requirements simple with minimal costs on farmers. In order to accommodate the maximum number of sheep farmers, John Lynskey said the scheme needs to provide flexibility on numbers and on the options farmers can select to best suit their enterprise in order to draw down the funding.
The IFA sheep farmer leader said the proposals are now gone to Brussels and The Minister needs to be in a position to confirm full funding and details of the scheme in the October Budget as the scheme needs to be up and running from January 1st 2017.
The scheme will be based on the animal welfare measure in the Rural Development Programme, which allows for a payment per head. He said the scheme will involve a number of welfare options which farmers will choose from to best suit their enterprise.