The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been urged to pay farmers “on time, every time” by the Independent TD for Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae.
He said that farmers are hearing over and over “that payments were delayed because of a glitch in the system”.
“The payment could be as simple as a Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) grant or an Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) or Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payment.
“It could be any one of a variety of schemes. The farmers are being told there is a glitch in the system and their money is held up.
“Farming works on a tight budget and a tight margin,” Deputy Healy-Rae told both the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, during a Dáil debate this week.
Deputy Healy-Rae
He said that the crux of the matter was that farmers needed money coming in so that they can “pay it out” and asked both ministers if farmers could be guaranteed that if they submitted applications for schemes they would “get payments on a timely basis”.
Deputy Healy-Rae added: “Being blunt about it, we have a terribly bad reputation in the Department of Agriculture for delaying payments.
“All I ask is that it would be sorted out.”
He also said the fodder scheme – while very welcome – was not “user-friendly”
Deputy Healy-Rae told the Dáil: “I know plenty of people who could do with it but they have not applied for it.
“The minister might look at the statistics and say it is not really needed at all but that is wrong. It is, but people will not apply for it.
“The very people who are applying for it are owed money by the Department of Agriculture already. That is what I am saying about schemes like that. We need to streamline and be more efficient about our duties and pay people on time, every time.”
Payments
In response Minister McConalogue said the “importance of prompt payments” was something the Government absolutely agrees on.
The minister said that because it was the first year of a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) there were “particular challenges”.
He said that as a result some payment dates set at the start of the year “were between one and four weeks later than they would have been in previous years”.
“This year, we will revert to all of the traditional dates.
“We are committed to making sure that we pay very high percentages on those dates this year,” the minister pledged.