Sinn Féin spokesperson on Agriculture, Claire Kerrane TD, has welcomed Minister McConalogue’s move to extend the time in which receipts for purchase of lime under the National Liming Programme can be submitted, as she had requested.  

Teachta Kerrane had asked the Minister to do this last week and again made the request directly on the floor of the Dáil yesterday as one of her Priority Questions to the Minister for Agriculture. 

Speaking on the announcement this afternoon, Teachta Kerrane said: 

“I welcome that Minister McConalogue has agreed to my request and extended the deadline in which Farmers have to have receipts for the purchase of lime submitted to the Department. 

“The deadline was to be next Tuesday however, I had put it to the Minister that given the increased input costs this year and the delay to farm payments, Farmers were under huge financial pressure and the idea of having to buy lime now just to have a receipt when the lime more than likely will not be spread until next year, was not fair. 

“I welcome the extension of one week, and while it is just a week, it will give Farmers a small bit of breathing space.

“On raising this issue again yesterday with the Minister, he insisted that an extension was not possible as this was one-off funding and it had to be spent this year. 

“I asked the Minister to check how many of the over 38,000 Farmers who applied had submitted receipts up to now, and that some flexibility be given considering the high input costs and the delay to farm payments.”