Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced the commencement of refunds worth a combined €15.6 million to approximately 95,000 farmers under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).
The money, deducted from 2021 BPS payments in line with EU regulations under the Financial Discipline Mechanism, is now being reimbursed to farmers, the minister confirmed.
This refund works out as an average of around €164/farmer in line for a refund.
Commenting on these refunds, the minister said: “I am pleased to confirm that these payments are now being reimbursed to eligible farmers.
“These payments will bring the total paid to Irish farmers under the 2021 Basic Payment Scheme to over €1.18 billion.”
The Financial Discipline Mechanism is part of the annual budgetary procedure of the EU.
It involves a monetary deduction (1.65% for the 2021 reduction) from some direct payments for the provision of a financial crisis reserve for the EU.
The crisis reserve is intended to provide additional support for the agricultural sector in the case of major crisis affecting agricultural production or distribution.
If the crisis reserve is not activated in the financial year, or is not fully utilised, the unused balance is refunded to farmers in the subsequent financial year.
The BPS has been replaced by the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which came into force this year.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has told Agriland that it will be sending notifications to around 4,750 farmers who applied for BISS, arising from satellite farm inspections, starting this week.
The Area Monitoring System (AMS) is mandatory across all EU member states since January 1, this year, as part of the new CAP, to monitor compliance with farm scheme criteria.
This year, the department will be using the AMS satellite system for BISS, as well as the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, the Protein Aid Scheme (PAS), and the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).
AMS findings may impact payments for other area-based schemes such as the Eco-Scheme and the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF).
The first round of AMS notifications began issuing to scheme applicants from yesterday (Monday, June 26).