The Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) has improved environmental awareness in farming and increased pollution controls on Irish farms, a report has found.
More than 42,000 farmers took part in the EU scheme after signing a five-year contract to farm in an environmentally sensitive way. Since 1994 they have received more than £400 million from the scheme.
Compiled for the Department of Agriculture and Food by Fitzpatrick Associates, a Dublin-based economic consultancy firm, the report also concluded that the EU scheme had been economically beneficial to farmers.
By 1997, three years after the scheme started, income per hectare on REP scheme farms - including the scheme's payments to farmers - was 12 per cent higher than on extensive non-REPS farms, the report concluded.
The evaluation report, to be submitted to the European Commission next week, found that the scheme, for which the maximum payment is £5,000 a year, attracted less intensive small and medium-sized farms. Very small and very large farms were underrepresented in the scheme.
A statement from the Department of Agriculture said the report had acknowledged that REPS had increased awareness of environmentally sensitive farming and protected wildlife. "It also found that the scheme is helping to preserve extensive practices in the west and midlands where many of the country's most natural and sensitive environments are to be found," the statement added.
It had made farmers more aware of the various causes of pollution and how they could be avoided. Many farmers had invested in pollution control and waste storage facilities to reduce the risk of pollution.
The report claimed the use of organic nutrients had increased while the level of out-wintering cattle had been reduced. This had a substantial impact on animal accommodation, fodder and waste storage in the majority of participating farms.
"The REP scheme, together with the control of farmyard pollution scheme, has helped to reduce the problem of inadequate pollution control facilities on farms, particularly on small farms that might previously have lacked the necessary resources," it added.
Welcoming the report, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said he was committed to an ongoing evaluation of the REP scheme, which will be discussed in Brussels by farm ministers next week.
Stricter regulations covering the operation of the scheme are being drawn up by Brussels. Irish farm organisations, meanwhile, have complained that members cannot join a new REPS.