Speaking at the Assembly Committee, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development confirmed that she has received the necessary financial assurances from Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) to allow her Department to continue to process the applications received for the Scheme. She has secured agreement from DFP that it will cover the additional capital liabilities that will be incurred in 2008-2009 as a result of continuing to process applications for the scheme between now and the publication by the Executive of its draft Budget and Investment Strategy at the end of September 2007.
The Minister said, “This is great news for the local farming industry as the implementation of the Nitrates Directive has been the single biggest issue currently threatening the industry. I am very pleased to be able to deliver on this key priority early in my term in office. Continued implementation of the directive is not only good for the environment, certainly from the point of view of water quality, but also in terms of our landscape maintained by our traditional farming patterns. We need sustainable farming, maintenance of rural jobs and rural communities.”
The Minister said that the Department would press on at full speed with approving applications. It would seek to avoid delay in offering approval to farmers to proceed by writing to them in advance of inspection visits about matters which have delayed the granting of such approvals in the past. She continued:
“This is a major challenge for us all and my department will now almost double the numbers of staff involved so that the processing of applications is speeded up. I would ask those farmers who have approvals to get on with their building work. I would ask those who are awaiting approval to address the matters that we write to them about and to be as well prepared as possible for our inspection visits. It remains a major challenge to build the necessary volume of storage ahead of the EU deadline of 31 December 2008.”
As part of DARD’s obligations this arrangement includes the strategic disposal of land at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (ABFI) Crossnacreevy site. It will also involve relocation of staff. This is expected to occur within the CSR period which ends in 2010/2011.
It is planned to implement the staff relocation and disposal in such a way that it does not disrupt nor reduce the AFBI experimental, arable and grasslands programmes, nor impact upon the staffing levels associated with them.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
- All media queries to the DARD Press Office on 02890524619
