It has been revealed that a total of 2,342 farmers failed to submit Animal Health Measures (AHMs) under the Knowledge Transfer (KT) Programme.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, revealed the data in response to a recent parliamentary question from Fianna Fail’s Agriculture Spokesperson, Charlie McConalogue.
The deadline for submitting these AHMs, as well as Farm Improvement Plans (FIPs) under the programme, expired on Wednesday, August 23.
However, Minister Creed noted that in addition to these figures, approximately 20 AHMs were partially completed.
The data released by the minister relates to the five sectors to which the AHMs apply – this was not a requirement for tillage groups in the KT Programme.
Some further data has also been received by the department, which will now be reviewed with an aim towards further processing. Some elements were received by email in cases where the person submitting the data may have experienced submission issues, Minister Creed explained.
Taking the AHMs together with the elements of the FIP, the overall position is that some 18,400 KT participants have either fully or partially submitted the data submission requirements for the first year of the programme, he added.
These participants will now be subject to the standard administrative and verification checks in order to process them for payment, including verification of having attended the required number of group meetings.
Meanwhile, the department also revealed to AgriLand recently that approximately 17,700 FIPs were submitted under the KT Programme.
These completed applications were submitted by the relevant KT Group Facilitators; around another 400 FIPs are partially completed on the KT system, a spokesperson for the department said at the end of last month.
Cases where the FIP or AHM data submitted is not fully complete may give rise to a partial payment based on the level of completion, the department confirmed.
An applicant who has not fully completed their FIP will not be prevented from moving forward to the second year of the KT Programme, the spokesperson for the department added.