The commencement of refund payments of over €13.35 million to approximately 100,000 farmers has been announced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The move was revealed by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue today (Monday, June 28).
This money was deducted from their 2019 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments under the Financial Discipline rule and is now being reimbursed in line with the EU regulations.
Commenting, Minister McConalogue said: “I am pleased to confirm that these payments are now being reimbursed to eligible farmers.”
The minister added that, “these payments will bring the total paid to Irish farmers under the 2019 Basic Payment Scheme to over €1.194 billion”.
In the context of the annual budgetary procedure of the European Union, the financial discipline mechanism which is implemented by the member states involves a monetary deduction (1.4% for the 2019 reduction) from some direct payments.
This creates a financial Crisis Reserve for the European Union, the Department of Agriculture explained.
The crisis reserve is intended to provide additional support for the agricultural sector in the case of major crises affecting agricultural production or distribution.
In the event that the Crisis Reserve is not activated in the financial year, or it is not fully utilised, the unused balance is refunded to farmers in the subsequent financial year, the department added.
In related news, last month, the department confirmed that, for the 2021 BPS, 128,742 applications had been received since the scheme opened to applicants on February 18.
After the scheme was opened, farmers should have received a BPS information pack via post containing maps, land details and a ‘help sheet’ to assist in applications.
All applications were made online.