Department 'proposing to push back scheme payment dates'

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is proposing to push back dates for payments to farmers under certain schemes, according to one farm organisation.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) said that the proposal from the department was communicated to farm organisations at a meeting of stakeholders of the Farmers’ Charter.

Dermot Kelleher, the association’s president, criticised the proposal, saying that pushing back the payment date for agricultural schemes is “unacceptable”.

He called on the department to scrap its proposals.

“At today’s meeting of the Farmers’ Charter, the department put forward a set of proposals that would mean the payment dates of certain schemes would be pushed back by up to a month,” he said.

“Representatives from the ICSA made it very clear that any interfering with payment dates is unacceptable,” Kelleher added.

He said he was “particularly alarmed” by an apparent proposal to push back Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) Scheme payments by up to four weeks and set a new payment date of mid-October.

“The September ANC payment is hugely important to farmers. It is a very busy time of the year for all families and farm families are no different,” he said.

“We…can see no justification for withholding farmers’ income, particularly at a time when making ends meet has become more difficult than ever.”

The farm leader also said that the department was proposing to delay the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payment by one week, a move over which he also expressed concern.

“Again, this will lead to unnecessary hardship for farmers by meddling with traditional payment dates,” he said.

“This would be unacceptable for any worker in any sector and these proposals must be binned,” Kelleher added.

Separately the Irish Farmers’ Association has also hit out at any proposed delay in farm payments under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Also speaking after the Farmers’ Charter of Rights meeting in Portlaoise today (Thursday, March 9) Brian Rushe, deputy president of the IFA, said farm organisations had been presented with a “proposed payment schedule and essentially it was a case of take it or leave it”.

“We need to go back to the drawing board here, appoint an independent chair to manage negotiations and first establish the core principles to underpin the new charter before we even get into the nitty gritty of any individual schemes.

“We fully appreciate the added complexity of the new CAP, for all involved, but it cannot always be the farmer who loses out. Farm schemes are just too important. The charter has proven it can work, for the mutual benefit of all, but we’ve started on the wrong foot here,” Rushe added.

The next Farmers’ Charter meeting is expected to take place in early April.