It would be “immoral” to attempt to seek a payback of up to €40m from farmers under the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) scheme.
That's according to Roscommon/East Galway TD Denis Naughten, who made the comments after it emerged that the national suckler herd as a whole has already fallen by 6% between June 2018 and June 2020.
However there are reports that up to 18,000 farmers could face a clawback of €40m if they fail to achieve a 5% reduction of bovine livestock manure nitrogen under BEAM, which was co-funded by the EU Commission.
Deputy Naughten explained why there are calls for the money to be repaid.
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