The Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) has said while a number of on-the-spot-checks (OTSC) outcomes under the 2024 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) currently have reviews being finalised, the level of non-compliance under the 2024 scheme is expected to show a "further fall".

DAFM has confirmed to Agriland that some 6,700 young farmers availed of the CISYF scheme in 2024, receiving a total of €38.7 million in supports.

This figure was up by nearly €1 million, compared to 6,350 farmers who received funding of €37.8 million in 2023.

According to DAFM, previous years of the scheme showed a "high non-compliance" level at OTSC, with non-compliance consistently over 17% in 2022.

DAFM highlighted that the key area of non-compliance within the CISYF scheme was a failure to demonstrate that the young farmer exercised the required financial and managerial control of the holding.

To combat this high level of non-compliance, the department doubled the requirement for a minimum of 5% of cases to be inspected, to a 10% inspection requirement in 2021.

A number of measures were also put in place up to 2022 to attempt to address the non-compliance level under the CISYF scheme, previously known as the Young Farmers' Scheme (YFS). 

From 2023 a financial penalty for non-compliance at OTSC under CISYF was introduced as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A spokesperson from DAFM said: "The impact of the range of measures put in place in recent years to inform applicants of the requirements under CISYF, particularly with regard to the requirement for the young farmer to demonstrate financial and managerial control of the holding, has shown in the sharp reduction in the non-compliance level when compared to the historically high level under YFS up to 2022.

"The non-compliance level following OTSC under the 2023 CISYF was down to 14.8%."

Scheme

The CISYF scheme was introduced in 2023 under the current CAP, and was the successor to the previous YFS which was in place under the 2015-2022 CAP.

According to DAFM, since 2023 the scheme terms and conditions have been expanded to set out more details for applicants with regard to the requirement in the event of OTSC and the obligation on the young farmer to demonstrate financial and managerial control of the holding.  

The terms and conditions of the scheme also contain a section on the penalties for non-compliance. In addition, each year an information notice issues to all scheme applicants.  

This notice sets out details of the requirement for the young farmer to demonstrate financial and managerial control of the holding and also refers to this requirement being checked as part of the inspections carried out under the scheme.  

It also refers to the financial penalty for failure at CISYF inspection stage and gives an example of the level of penalty that could apply where an applicant holds the maximum allowable land area under the scheme.  

The department also outlined that this notice is issued a number of months before approvals under the scheme are finalised and allows applicants the opportunity to review their own compliance with the requirements in advance of the inspections process, as an applicant may not withdraw their application under the scheme in the event of receiving notification of an inspection.