The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has said that it has developed a “preliminary outline” of a proposal to provide support to ‘forgotten farmers’.
These ‘forgotten farmers’ had typically set up their agricultural holdings before 2008 and were under 40 in 2015 but did not qualify for Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) supports.
There are an estimated 4,000 farmers who lost out on vital financial supports due to cuts in public expenditure by the government following the last recession.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue previously told the annual conference of Macra in October that a scheme would be developed for these farmers. However, details of such scheme have been slow to emerge.
The department has told Agriland that the outlined proposal would see a scheme launched to provide support to farmers who had established their holdings prior to 2008, were under 40 in 2015, did not have the opportunity to benefit from installation aid, and were ineligible for access to young farmers’ supports from 2015.
The department said it “continues to work on addressing issues in relation to the proposed scheme, including the funding required, before details of the eligibility requirements and benefits to successful applicants under a scheme can be finalised”.
“Details of the scheme will be made available as soon as this process has been completed,” it added.
The department also said that the minister “has committed to supporting this cohort of farmers, many of whom find themselves in this situation through no fault of their own”.
Back in January, during the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) Farming and Climate Summit in Limerick, Minister McConalogue told Agriland that the department was working on developing a scheme.
He said: “We’re continuing to work on it. It’s complex, there’s a lot of different aspects and strands to it. We’re committed to doing it and the team are continuing to work on it.”
The minister had hoped to give more details on the scheme within the first quarter of the year, but also said that the process would “take time” and “won’t be a fast process”.