Close to 90% of applications to the Basic Payment Scheme this year have been made online, the latest figures from the Department of the Agriculture, Food and the Marine show.

Minister Michael Creed announced that the scheme was open for applications earlier this month.

Since the announcement, a total of 7,111 applications to the BPS have been submitted, according to the Department.

This year farmers are allowed to submit their applications in both paper and online format.

Out of the total number of BPS applications, 6,325 of these were submitted online, the Department confirmed to Agriland.

This means that just 786 applications were submitted in paper format so far this year.

Out of a total of about 124,312 eligible applications to the BPS last year, 102,020 farmers applied online, according to the IFA.

This meant that 82% of applications to the scheme were submitted to the Department online in 2016.

This year it is hoped to increase the number of online applications by another 10,000 to 15,000 applicants, the IFA added.

If these targets are met (and the total number of eligible applications remains relatively unchanged) then between 90% and 94% of the total number of applications will be submitted online in 2017.

Minister Creed recently said that he hoped to build on the recent growth in online applications for the BPS this year.

There is a range of benefits that online applications provide to both farmers and the Department, in terms of the more efficient processing of applications and payments, he added.

It is believed applications to the BPS will have to be submitted 100% online from 2018 onwards.

The closing date for BPS applications in 2017 has been set as Monday, May 15.

‘Online-only scheme applications unfair on rural Ireland’

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada said the insistence from the Department on online-only scheme applications is unfair on rural Ireland.

She urged the Department to continue to accept paper applications, alongside online applications, for schemes such as TAMS and the BPS.

“While I would welcome any system that makes getting money from Europe into the hands of Irish farmers easier and more efficient, the Government is putting the cart well before the horse here by insisting on online-only applications.

“There are still huge swathes of rural Ireland with no access to broadband, meaning such a move is only putting another obstacle in the way of those farmers getting the payments.

This seems to be a case of a blinkered Department in Dublin thinking that the rest of the country has the same facilities as the capital.

The Sinn Fein MEP also wanted to remind the Department that there are more farmers in the country over the age of 70 than under the age of 35.

“For many of them online applications are simply not going to be an option,” she concluded.