The processing of interest payments to farmers whose grants were delayed under the Farm Waste Management Scheme has been described by Denis Naughten as the “bare minimum” required to address the serious hardship caused to farmers.

Denis Naughten acknowledged that the Government had previously been forced to climb down on the issue of the payment of interest on loans for the Farm Waste Management Grant.

“The Government decided to accept the principle of the proposal put forward by Fine Gael in March of 2009 and, while these payments will undoubtedly be welcomed by farmers struggling to meet loans, it is unacceptable that it has taken almost two years to process the payments and that they were not made with the final 20% grant payment in January of this year.

“The irresponsible way the Minister for Agriculture handled this issue caused serious financial hardship for many farm families and they were left out to dry by the Government while it supported the banks and big builders,” concluded Denis Naughten.