Red tape and bureaucracy are burying farmers in "useless documentation", eating into valuable time and energy, a farm organisation has warned.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has put forward 20 practical proposals which it believes would cut red tape and make life easier for farmers.

It is challenging policy makers, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and also political leaders to act on them – or explain why, in their opinion, an already unwieldy system continues to get worse despite repeated promises of simplification.

Denis Drennan, president of the ICMSA, believes the organisation's 20 proposals would make a real difference to farmers.

ICMSA wants DAFM to:

Remove the Dairy Herd Certificate requirement for herds where animals are tested for TB annually. Where the department already has access to this information, ICMSA said there should be no need for additional certification;
Give farmers the option to go paperless. Not every farmer wants to move away from paper, but those who do should be able to deal with the department by email and text only according to the organisation;
Remove the FCI form requirement for animals going to meat plants. This is another piece of paperwork that ICMSA says could be eliminated by making better use of information already available;
Make greater use of email when communicating with farmers. The department still relies heavily on posted letters, but many farmers, according to the assocation, would be happy to receive correspondence by email;
Confirm all payments to farmers by text or email. Where a farmer has opted for electronic communication, they should receive a message confirming the payment, the scheme it relates to and the relevant year the ICMSA said;
Introduce a simple tick-box option for rolling over applications. The organisation believes that schemes such as Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and the Nitrates Derogation should allow farmers to confirm that their details remain unchanged from the previous year by ticking a box and submitting;
Simplify veterinary medicine record-keeping. Farmers should only be required to record usage data for veterinary medicines ICMSA has proposed.
Simplify the dairy cow banding declaration process. This declaration should be available through Agfood and completed automatically using Co-op data, with the option of selecting either an annual or three-year declaration according to the organisation.
Automatically issue compensation to farmers restricted due to TB or BVD. ICMSA says where the department already knows that a herd is restricted or that an animal has been removed as a reactor, the relevant compensation should be processed automatically;
Make all TB-related documentation available on Agfood According to the organisation farmers should be able to access and submit all relevant TB paperwork online according to the organisation;
Make the tone of DAFM correspondence more farmer-friendly. ICMSA believes some letters issued by the department are unnecessarily legalistic and can come across as threatening when a phone call could resolve issues;
Simplify the process for dealing with dual claims and shared applications. The organisation believes that where farmers are asked to provide the name of another person making a claim, DAFM should make every effort to resolve the matter directly;
Introduce clear time limits for inspection outcomes. According to the ICMSA penalty letters arising from inspections should be issued within three months of the inspection date;
Introduce a common application window for all schemes. The organisation would like all schemes to be open for applications within the same annual window, from February 15 to May 15;
Make participation in livestock schemes continuous by default. According to the IMCSA once a farmer joins a livestock scheme, participation should automatically continue from year to year without the need to submit a new application annually;
Bring back the Calf Registration App. The organisation says this was an excellent initiative by DAFM and a good example of how technology can make life easier for farmers;
Simplify and centralise the TAMS application process. ICSMA wants the entire process to be streamlined and managed through one centralised system, similar to the BISS application process;
Remove the requirement to retain feed purchase records. The organisation believes an annual statement from the relevant supplier should be sufficient;
Remove the requirement to keep the ‘Blue Sheet’ to be retained for animals removed to knackeries.  ICMSA believes records could move to hand-held devices;
 Written permit should not be required for TB reactors. According to the organisation these are being collected by a designated DAFM collector but it does not feel there is a need to do this.

The president of ICMSA believes that its proposals will not "compromise regulation in any way".