Councillor's anger over delay in payments to farmers
Cllr Chris Maxwell raised the issue.
A Louisburgh councillor has condemned the Department of Agriculture for the ongoing delays in payments under the ACRES scheme.
Cllr Chris Maxwell told last week's meeting of Westport-Belmullet Municipal District that more than 15,000 farmers have been left without their money for the past year.
"[The Department] rewrote the scheme and bamboozled everyone. Farmers spend their money in local communities but they are not having any of it now to spend.
“The so-called experts in Dublin are also the ones saying we should all be living in villages and towns. They can’t understand our road network and telecommunications is already there, so instead they should be encouraging more housing in rural areas and our services would be made more viable then.
“They have all the answers up there in Dublin for us in rural Ireland but they are the wrong answers.”
