The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) needs to adopt a fair approach to errors by farmers in assessing eligibility for farm payments, according to Galway East TD, Seán Canney.
The independent deputy has said that he has been contacted by a number of farmers who have been refused Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments because they “failed to tick a box on their online application form”.
Deputy Canney stated: “The decision by the department can only be described as ruthless, and leaves farmers short on vital income supports.
“I have examples of farmers who have lost thousands of euro in supports over a four or five-year period directly as a result of a very harsh approach by the department.
“The crux of the problem is that the first question on the form asks if there are any changes since the previous year. The second question asks if you are applying for ANC [Areas of Natural Constraint]. Some farmers did not tick the ANC question as they understood that they had covered this in question one,” the deputy explained.
Canney said that it constitutes a “simple error in interpretation” and that a simple query back from the department would clarify this issue. However, he claims that the DAFM approach is to refuse payment of all supports.
‘Some farmers, when they get the refusal, blame themselves for the error and do not appeal to the department,” Canney added.
“The attitude of the department is not fair and the [agriculture] minister needs to intervene and direct the department to a more flexible approach when simple administrative errors are made, and he also needs to conduct a review of such cases since 2018, when the online system became mandatory.
“Farming is tough, income is limited, and the Basic Payment Scheme is in place to support farmers, not to penalise simple errors. The consequences for farmers are enormous,” he continued.
The Galway representative has issued an appeal to farmers who have been penalised in this manner to contact his office so that he can “strengthen” his case to the minister.
ANC payments
The ANC scheme provides payments to people farming land in designated disadvantaged areas. It aims to support the continuation of farming in these areas by compensating farmers for the additional costs involved in farming such land.
To qualify for the Areas of Natural Constraints and the Areas of Specific Constraint schemes, farmers must:
- Hold a valid herd number and be farming at least 3ha of eligible ANC lands in their own right. For ASC eligible lands, land must be situated on an off-shore island with no permanent access to the mainland e.g. bridge or causeway and farmed in the farmer’s own right;
- Maintain a minimum stocking density of 0.15 livestock units (LU) per eligible forage hectare for seven consecutive months within the 2021 calendar year;
- Maintain an annual average stocking density of 0.15LU/eligible forage hectare for the 2021 calendar year.