Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed has announced an extension to the deadline for submission of data for Farm Improvement Plans in Knowledge Transfer (KT) groups.
The deadline will be extended by two weeks until August 14, 2018, the minister revealed today (Friday, July 20).
Commenting, Minister Creed said: “Following on from discussions with key stakeholders, I have decided to extend the period for KT group facilitators to submit completed Farm Improvement Plans under the KT Programme.
“In particular, this extension has arisen on foot of concerns expressed in relation to the amount of resources currently being dedicated by advisory services to assisting farmers in dealing with the current weather conditions.”
Minister Creed added: “This extension will enable advisors and vets to benefit from extra time to finalise actions for their KT groups and to progress the outstanding work carried out to date under the scheme.
In turn, this allows farmers to derive maximum benefit from the KT Programme.
The minister also urged all participants in KT groups to submit their Farm Improvement Plan data as soon as possible.
Processing will begin on cases submitted by the original July 31 deadline, in order to ensure that any impact on payment timelines is minimised.