The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is still processing 661 applications made under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme.
Officials are also working through 930 applications submitted for the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme.
Details on the number of outstanding agricultural scheme payments was recently sought by Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Claire Kerrane in a parliamentary question.
Payments
In response, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that there are currently 120,463 “potentially eligible BISS applicants”, of which 119,802 have received payment.
Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) has been replaced by the BISS.
The maximum payment that will be granted to any one farmer under the BISS, in any one scheme year is capped at an effective rate of €66,000.
“The majority of the 661 unpaid herds for BISS and 930 unpaid herds for ANC are cases where the applicant has not yet provided the required documents to support their claim.
“In other cases, the applicant has not fulfilled certain obligations, for example stocking rate under active farmer provisions,” Minister McConalogue said.
This means that a total of 1,591 BISS and ANC payments are still working their way through the system.
DAFM has also confirmed to Agriland that a total of 385 participants in Tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are still waiting for their interim payment.
The interim payment to ACRES Tranche 1 participants who had not yet received their advance payments was announced by Minister McConalogue in February.
In total €119.5 million has been issued in interim payments to 25,061 ACRES participants to date.
In relation to the outstanding cases, the department said there “remain a range of outstanding queries”, such as in relation to ownership/change of title.
DAFM said it is continuing to resolve these outstanding queries with the relevant applicants, and that payments will be made “as appropriate” when this work is completed.
BISS
Meanwhile, the department has received over 37,000 applications for 2024 area-based schemes, including the BISS scheme.
The latest data provided by the department shows that 37,314 applications had been made as of Monday, April 15.
It comes as farmers and advisors have now less than a month left to complete and submit applications.
The closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15, 2024.