Welsh welcome early payments

5 March 2001



Welsh welcome early payments

By FWi staff

WELSH farming unions have welcomed the efforts of the National Assembly to bring forward support payments in the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Rural Affairs minister Carwyn Jones announced on Monday (05 March) that staff had worked overtime to process Tir Mynydd payments.

These efforts ensured that 22 million of Tir Mynydd payments were processed by last Friday. The money will be paid to farmers this week.

The remaining 12m will be processed over the next fortnight, with 6m of that being processed this week.

National Farmers Union Cymru vice chairman Peredur Hughes said: “These early payments will help some farmers with the inevitable cashflow problems they are facing.”

He said the epidemic together with economic problems “have left farmers frightened and fearing for their future”.

FUW President Bob Parry said: “I congratulate the staff at the Assemblys agriculture department for getting these payments out to farmers so quickly,”

“Farmers appreciate the long hours that the staff have had to put in to ensure that the applications are approved.”

Tir Mynydd is the new name in Wales for the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance.

This socio-economic European payment allows farmers to rear livestock in difficult terrain, such as the hills and uplands of Wales.