Thousands of farmers are set to receive an average payment of over €4,000 under the expanded Results Based Environment Agri Pilot (REAP).

The budget for REAP is to more than double to over €20m after 3,000 more spaces were approved by Brussels following a formal request by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

Almost 5,000 farmers have been approved, with over €12.5m of this money to go to farmers on the western seaboard.

Some 778 farmers in Galway are in the scheme, 628 are from Mayo, 458 are from Donegal, 336 are from Roscommon, 306 are in Clare and 219 are in Kerry, while 206 are in Sligo and 167 are in Leitrim.

Over 10,800 farmers applied to the scheme

Farmers can secure up to €12,600 across the two years of the scheme. Some 91% of farmers in the scheme are stocked at less than 140kg organic N/ha, the equivalent of less than one suckler cow per acre.

Over 10,800 farmers applied to the scheme and the ICMSA has called on the Department of Agriculture to explain to almost 6,000 farmers who weren’t accepted into the scheme why they were excluded.