The Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) livestock committee chairperson Brendan Golden has said that over 8,000 farmers will be facing clawbacks when the latest Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) reference period expires on December 31.
Golden described the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) handling of BEAM as “an administrative disaster“.
While giving an overview of happenings in the beef sector during 2021 to Agriland, Golden was very critical of the department’s handling of the BEAM scheme.
Commenting on the scheme, Golden said: “It has been an administrative disaster from the outset by the Department of Agriculture.
“The situation reached new lows in 2021, with monies taken back from farmers, errors in calculations sent to farmers and doing a U-turn on commitments for TB-restricted farms.”
He outlined that the eligibility requirements made it “virtually impossible to comply with what was a scheme that was poorly designed from the outset”.
Golden reiterated: “Over 8,000 farmers are facing clawbacks on December 31, and DAFM officials are intent on effectively penalising these farmers for availing of the extension provided.”
Golden warned that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue will need to “take control of the situation early in the new year” and “ensure farmers are provided with every opportunity to hold on to their monies”.
Under the BEAM scheme, participants had to reduce their bovine manure nitrogen (N) levels by 5% (compared to an earlier reference period) within a one-year reduction period that ended on June 30.
However, due to the disruption caused by Covid-19, farmers were given the option to defer this reduction period by six months, giving them until December 31, 2021, to meet the 5% reduction target.
The department said in August that a total of 18,707 of the some 34,000 participants had met the target within the original reduction period, i.e. before June 30.
Of that figure, 5,293 had chosen to defer but, as they have already met the original target and require no further action, they will now be notified by the department that they are being removed from the BEAM deferment period.