Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced payments under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme have commenced issuing to farmers.
Advance payments totalling €182 million have issued to 85,000 farmers.
The minister said: “The ANC Scheme is crucial to farm families and I know the importance of getting payments out to applicants as quickly as possible.
“The issuing of these payments in mid-September highlights our commitment to make payments to farmers at the earliest possible time.
“The ANC payments are a timely and significant financial boost for farmers and for the wider rural economy,” the minister added.
Farmers can expect to see payments in their bank accounts in the coming days.
“My department will continue to process, as a matter of urgency, all remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria,” Minister McConlogue said.
The minister also confirmed that arrangements are being made by his department to facilitate payment of the advance of 70% under the BPS from October 17.
The issuing of €182 million in payments to 85,000 farmers is in line with previous years, with the same amount of money being paid to the same amount of farmers at this stage in 2021.
In line with last year’s arrangement, the payments currently issuing are an 85% advance payment on the ANC Scheme. The 15% of balancing payments are due to commence in early December.
In line with previous years, not all applications are currently cleared for payment under the ANC Scheme. In particular, many farmers have yet to satisfy the annual average stocking density of 0.15 livestock units (LUs) per forage hectare for the calendar year.
However, farmers have until December 31, 2022 to do so. Such cases can only be cleared for payment once this requirement has been confirmed.
Regular pay runs will continue in the coming weeks to ensure cleared cases are processed for payment as quickly as possible.
Farmers should submit any outstanding stocking evidence in support of their application to the Department’s Portlaoise Office as soon as possible to facilitate the early release of payments.