The poor design of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) will impact 11,000 farmers who will have €18 million in payments clawed back from them, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
Following a meeting with senior officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), IFA livestock chair, Brendan Golden, is calling on Minister Charlie McConalogue, to move immediately to resolve the issues that have led to this.
Golden said it is a clear failure of the BEAM scheme and its administration that 11,000 farmers have, or will have, €18 million clawed back from them.
Figures at the end of the latest reference period show that in the region of 7,500 more farmers failed to reduce their organic nitrogen (N) output by 5% and are liable to have another almost €13 million clawed back.
This follows the clawback of over €5 million from over 3,500 farmers last year.
Golden said it’s inconceivable that the minister would allow his officials to issue letters to suckler and beef farmers in the coming days demanding the repayment of this money with the threat of interest charges.
“Suckler and beef farmers have seen the value of current beef prices completely eroded by production cost increases. This situation has been further compounded by the war in Ukraine. We have had further input cost inflation and the new concern of availability for some of our key inputs,” he said.
He has called on the minister to act as a matter of urgency to address this issue once and for all.
“The minister must provide extended repayment facilities for farmers, with no interest charges,” he said.
“We can see now the full extent of the money being taken from the pockets of suckler and beef farmers. This must be committed as part of further funding for targeted schemes for suckler cows and cattle rearing and finishing farmers,” he said.
He added that payments for suckler cows must be increased to €300/cow and a cattle-rearing and cattle-finishing scheme that returns €100/animal must be put in place.
“These monies taken from farmers will require additional funding for these schemes,” he said.
Golden said the minister and his officials have had over six months to put in place structures to minimise the impact on farmers.
He said all farmers who opted to defer in the scheme must be allowed use whichever reference period works best for them, and force majeure cases must be fairly dealt with.