EU to investigate NI grant scheme
The EU Commission is to investigate a grant scheme in Northern Ireland which sparked a furore on the day it opened.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland decided to open the £6m Farm Modernisation grant scheme on a first-come-first-served basis.
Farmers quickly realised the decision meant the funds could be swallowed up by as few as 1200 applications and a rush on the province’s government offices began, with hundreds queueing outside. Some arrived 24 hours before the scheme was due to open on 17 February, braving near-freezing night time temperatures.
In less than three hours of opening, the scheme was oversubscribed by three times the applicant limit, with 3500 applications lodged. By 4pm the number had risen to 6000.
It is feared the queues may have been in vain, after a Brussels spokesman said the commission was unhappy with the way the funds had been distributed.
Agriculture commissioner Michael Mann told the BBC’s Talkback programme that DARD’s methods were “unacceptable” and broke commission rules.
“A first-come-first-served basis is not an acceptable way of doing this,” Mr Mann said.
But a spokesman for the Ulster Farmers Union insisted that it had been the best way.
The grants come under the EU rural development programme and are being provided to help modernise units and improve animal welfare, he said. The applicants have to prove their proposal meets the scheme’s criteria.
UFU president Graham Furey said “The whole concept of a farm modernisation scheme was proposed by UFU members as an effective way to use EU Rural Development Funding.
“It is regrettable that farmers had to queue for so long. However, the only other alternative was a competitive, criteria-based process, which would have been very bureaucratic, slow to deliver and more costly.”
The main problem was a lack of funding, the UFU felt, despite the fact the £6m was only part of a £15m fund to be distributed over five years.
“We will be urging the Stormont Executive to explore ways of securing more funding for the scheme. This is a very effective way of generating economic activity and more funding will assist as many farmers as possible to access the scheme in future.”