Notifications for preliminary checks of 2022 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications are now issuing to farmers, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has confirmed.

The preliminary checks will identify any over-claims, overlaps or dual claims in respect of online BPS applications, the department explained.

The notifications are issued where the department finds such an error on a farmer’s 2022 BPS application.

The applicants who received notifications will have the opportunity to rectify these issues without penalty.

Farmers and agricultural advisors working on behalf of farmers are asked to check the correspondence section of their BPS online account.

Where a farmer is signed up for text message alerts, a text will issue to advise them that they have a notification on their BPS account.

In a case where a farmer or their advisor/agent receives such a notification, they should log on to the online agfood portal and respond before the closing date of June 21.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed at the end of May that 128,360 farmers applied for the 2022 BPS by the deadline of May 16.

The minister noted that the figure is in line with application numbers for previous years.

In addition, 33,207 Transfer of Entitlements applications were made to the department by the deadline.

Applications were also made for the Greening Scheme, Young Farmer Scheme, Protein Aid, Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) and Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme.

The highest number of 2022 BPS applications made by this year’s deadline came from Co. Cork.

Almost 10%, or 12,813, came from the Rebel County.

This was followed by Co. Galway with 12,112 applications and Co. Mayo with 11,366.

Along with the 128,360 BPS/Greening applications made by the May 16, deadline, the department told Agriland that:

  • 120,995 farmers applied for Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC);
  • 33,207 applied for Transfer of Entitlements;
  • 6,334 applied for the Young Farmers Scheme (YFS);
  • 2,505 applied for the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM);
  • 2,269 applied for the National Reserve (NR);
  • 941 applied for the Protein Aid scheme.