A total of €452 million has been issued to farmers today (Tuesday, October 24) as part of the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) payments.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed that the advance payment for cleared cases is to begin issuing from today.
The minister said: “This is the second October Tuesday of three, that advance payments are issuing to farm families the length and breadth of Ireland.
“Today, I am delighted to confirm that advance payments under the BISS and CRISS, worth over €452 million to 103,764 farmers, have commenced.”
According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), payments will be visible in farmers’ bank accounts in the coming days.
The BISS and CRISS payments will be commencing at a rate of 70% today, while payments under the new eco-schemes will commence from next week, according to DAFM.
BISS payments
According to the minister, the 103,764 farmers receiving the payments is “approximately 90% of applicants that are currently eligible”.
Minister McConalogue said: “I know just how crucial these payments are for family farm income, but I also recognise how important they are to businesses across the country bringing a welcome boost in cashflow to the rural economy.
“I am committed to ensuring that these scheme payments continue to issue in the most efficient way possible to ensure that these vital supports are delivered to farmers in a timely manner,” he added.
Earlier this year, the department confirmed that payment dates for the BISS – the replacement for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would be pushed back by several weeks.
It was announced earlier this year (May 30), that 124,664 farmers made applications for BISS, a scheme that Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan allocated €3.6 billion towards between 2023 and 2027.
DAFM has stated that it will “continue to process, as a matter of urgency, all remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria”.
The department is urging farmers with outstanding requests for documentation from DAFM to return to take immediate action to allow payments to issue.
Payment dates
Minister McConalogue said: “Given the importance of scheme payments to farmers, the department wrote to all farmers in March and again in September of this year outlining that there had been some changes to payment dates in 2023.
“I have committed that payment dates for 2024 will revert to the payment schedule in place in previous years once the complexities of delivering a totally new CAP have been worked through.”
This will come as welcome news to farmers, who were given an extra two weeks to apply for BISS in May 2023.