“the largest capital grant scheme ever run by the Department of Agriculture”

The BBC’s Martin Cassidy notes the NI Audit Office report into the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme, through which some 4000 farmers received grants worth £121million – the largest capital grant scheme ever run by the Department of Agriculture. When, in June 2007, the NI Finance Department gave its formal approval to extend the scheme to provide grant aid to all applications received before 31 March 2006, they had raised concerns about the affordability of the scheme.  One of the conditions of the formal …

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