The deadline at the end of this month for farmers to purchase and submit receipts for lime “makes no sense” following the recent extension to the lime-spreading period, according to Sinn Féin’s spokesperson for agriculture.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue previously confirmed that lime can be spread up to March 31, 2024, but the October 31, 2023, deadline remains in place for “invoices marked paid” under the National Liming Programme.
The programme is a once-off funded measure to incentivise farmers to use lime.
Financial support will be paid at the rate of “€16/t of calcium ground limestone, magnesium (dolomitic) ground limestone delivered and spread”.
The budget for the prorgamme was doubled from an initial €8 million to €16 million.
A total of 41,000 farmers applied to the programme and the average tonnage sought per applicant was just over 111t, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
Deputy Claire Kerrane said today (Wednesday, October 18), that while the extension to the spreading period is welcome, the deadline for purchasing and submitting receipts for lime should also now reflect this.
Deputy Kerrane said: “It makes no sense to extend one deadline and not the other.
“Why would a farmer go out and buy lime now that he cannot spread and now, in many cases, will not spread until next spring?
“It is not fair to insist farmers front-load buying lime at a time when so many are under significant financial pressure in order to get a receipt in on time to qualify for this scheme.”
She said that against the backdrop of a delay this year in the payments made to farmers for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) – the replacement for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) – and high farm input costs, the current deadline for purchasing and submitting receipts should be looked at again.
“Given the spreading deadline now isn’t for almost six months, it seems illogical to expect that farmers will prioritise purchasing lime when other more urgent bills will take priority.
“I have raised this matter with the minister and I have asked him to extend the deadline for submission of receipts under the National Liming Programme,” Deputy Kerrane added.