Deputy president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Brian Rushe said he has received assurances from the Department of Agriculture that the 70% advance on the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) will commence next Monday (October 18).
Speaking after a Charter of Rights meeting, the IFA deputy president said that “it’s absolutely essential that there’s no delay” in BPS payments this year.
“All farmers must be paid their advance BPS next Monday. It’s critical that uncompleted inspection cases do not cause payment delays and are cleared for payment without delay.
“With over 129,000 farmers making a basic payment application across all the schemes, it’s absolutely essential that all farmers are paid on all schemes on time, in line with the deadlines in the charter.”
In relation to the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) review, Rushe stressed that “where digitising is required, it cannot hold up payments”.
ANC and BEAM
He added that timely payments of the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme advance payments last month was welcome, and emphasised the importance of “paying the remaining farmers as soon as they meet their stocking density requirements”.
“The department confirmed that they are making ANC payments twice weekly and gave assurances to IFA that the remaining farmers will be paid their advance payment as soon as they meet the required stocking density,” the IFA added.
Regarding the Beef Emergency Aid Measure (BEAM) scheme, the IFA Livestock chairman Brendan Golden said all monies deducted from farmers’ ANC payments must be repaid immediately.
“The BEAM scheme has been very frustrating for farmers, but the latest move by the department to clawback money via ANC payment has infuriated farmers.
“Farmers must to be given the opportunity to arrange an extended repayment period and the interest charge must be removed,” he said.
Beef schemes payments
Payments under the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S) and the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) will commence in December, the IFA said.
Golden said the majority of farmers have met their requirements for these schemes, and the department “must look fairly on cases where farmers struggled to get samples to labs by the October 1 deadline”.
“Many labs around the country were under substantial pressure and farmers struggled to get labs to take in samples,” he said.
“The viability of suckler farms is heavily reliant on meaningful support payments and this money must be paid on time.”
GLAS
In relation to the approximately 500 remaining 2020 Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) balancing payments, Rushe said it is “critical that farmers receive these payments without any further delay”.
He also stressed the “importance of 2021 GLAS payments being paid on time in November without any hold up due to ongoing inspections”.
On the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS), Rushe welcomed the commitment by the department to repeat the review of the TAMS reference costings carried out earlier this year.
“This is necessary to keep pace with ongoing rising costs of building work and associated materials such as steel and timber,” Rushe explained.
“To ensure farmers receive a grant relative to the cost incurred, this review needs to be ready for the opening of Tranche 24, which is due to open on November 6 next.”