asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will ensure that all farm improvements started since 1st February, 1974 will be eligible for grants under the new scheme.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Farm Improvement Grants.
9.
All farm improvement works eligible for grants which were started after 1st February, 1974 and which were undertaken in accordance with the terms of the farm modernisation scheme, can be considered for aid under that scheme.
Is the Minister of the opinion that farmers can be classified within a reasonable time under the scheme because they can only get grants under that scheme?
There were difficulties about classification because of the dispute with the advisers. There were difficulties in the categorisation, but the Minister is aware of these difficulties as they arose and the consequences flowing from them. He undertakes to look at each case on its merits.
Would the Minister consider committees of agriculture who want additional advisers and who were refused sanction before in anticipation of this coming on? Would he consider more advisers are needed in each county?
That is a separate question.
Some farmers waited until after 1st February to apply for grants for new silage pits and, when the dispute was going on between the Minister and the advisers, they could not wait any longer and during the spring they went ahead and completed the pits.
That appears to be a different question.
All cases will be examined on their merits and any awkwardness or complications that may have arisen in the transition from the old to the new scheme will be corrected.