Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced that payments under the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) have commenced.
Just over 15,000 farmers are in line to receive payment.
Over 20,000 farmers applied for the scheme. However, some applications were withdrawn, while others failed one or more of the eligibility criteria, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine.
SCEP provides support to beef farmers to improve the environmental sustainability of the national beef herd, according to the department.
This is the first year of SCEP, as part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and builds on recent schemes, namely the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) and the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme (BEEP), by aiming to “improve the genetic merit of the Irish suckler herd”.
Payments may take up to five days to reach farmers accounts, the department said.
Minister McConalogue commented: “I welcome the payment of over €46 million to some 15,364 farmers participating in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme this week. These payments further build on the range of support schemes available for beef farmers”.
“The introduction of this programme further demonstrates the continuing commitment of this government to the beef sector for the coming years.”
The minister added: “I appreciate the importance of these payments to the beef sector and therefore encourage SCEP participants to submit any outstanding documentation to the department or the ICBF (Irish Cattle Breeding Federation) as soon as possible so that outstanding payments can be processed.”
SCEP is a five-year programme which opened for online applications on March 20, 2023, and closed on May 22, 2023.
Earlier this month, the department said: “Over 20,700 SCEP applications were received and even though some have withdrawn since or have failed one or more of the eligibility criteria since, the scheme is still oversubscribed in terms of the financial allocation in the CAP Strategic Plan.”
Among the criteria for eligibility, applicants had to also apply (if not already part of) the Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS).
Farmers not already part of SBLAS had until October 16 to apply for SBLAS in order to participate in SCEP (although they do not have to be certified under SBLAS until January 22).
However, some 1,400 SCEP applicants had failed to apply for SBLAS by that date, meaning they were removed from SCEP.
In mid-October, the department said: “There are 1,469 SCEP participants who failed to apply to Bord Bia for SBLAS membership, or have applied and subsequently cancelled their SBLAS application, by October 16, 2023. These participants will be removed from SCEP and no payment will issue for 2023 or subsequent years.”