With a lot of farmers switching banks due to the closure of some financial institutions and others discontinuing current accounts, Lorcan McCabe, Chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm Business Committee has reminded all farmers who have switched banks to ensure that they provide the new bank account details to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine so that there is no delay in their Single Farm Payment and other payments this autumn.

Given that the Disadvantaged Areas Payment is due in mid September, it is important that farmers provide this information as soon as possible to ensure no delay in this important payment.

All Department payments are now made directly to the farmers’ bank account and if the farmer has closed the bank account, the funds will simply stay in the Department until such time as the farmer submits the details of the new bank account. With direct payments such a large proportion of income for many farmers, Mr McCabe said, that if the farmer waits until payments are due, there could be a serious delay in payments with the consequent cash flow problems.

To ensure that this issue does not become a problem later this year, Mr McCabe said, that the Department should also play their part and make direct contact with those farmers either by letter or text where the Department know their account is with a bank that is leaving the Irish banking system or changing their strategy. The correspondence should also include the form to be completed by the farmer to provide the new account details.

Farmers should complete the relevant form, submit it to the Department Office in Cavan without delay so that payments can flow normally. The relevant form, Mr McCabe concluded, is also available on the Department website or from department offices and he advised all farmers in this position to deal with this matter without delay.