Farmers cannot be expected to wait on farm payments when input costs are “at an all time high”, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture, Claire Kerrane has warned.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) confirmed last month that farm payment dates will be delayed this year.
According to the DAFM, payments relating to Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) will be pushed back by a month to October 17, while Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payments will be made from October 24 – two weeks later than usual.
But Deputy Kerrane has questioned why urgent action cannot now be taken to avoid delays in farm payments.
“The announced change in dates for the payment of the ANC and the BISS, formerly the Basic Payment Scheme, is utterly unacceptable.
“With farm input costs at an all time high, delays in critical income supports to farmers have to be avoided and they need to be paid on time in September and October, as they have been previously,” she said.
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture said she has raised the issue with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue.
Deputy Kerrane said the minister had insisted that the delay was because it was the first year of the new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).
“I have made it clear to the minister that more needs to be done by his department to avoid these payment delays.
“The minister said the department has done everything they can around payment dates, but it is simply not good enough. Farmers cannot be expected to wait,” she added.
According to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), its national council has “unanimously” rejected DAFM’s proposals to delay payments for farm schemes.
IFA president Tim Cullinan called on the the minister to “come out of hiding on the issue and give an assurance to farmers that their payments will be on the same dates as last year”.
Meanwhile, Deputy Kerrane said she had also raised the issue of the new satellite mapping process which is being rolled out with Minister McConalogue.
“This will put the onus on farmers where an issue is raised by the satellite, it will be up to the farmer to take a geotag photograph and upload it to an app.
“This is going to be problematic for some farmers and it needs to be communicated before it is rolled out in June,” she warned.