Advance payments under the 2014 Single Farm Payment Scheme have been announced today by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney.
“I am particularly pleased that these payments, worth €480 million to 105,000 farmers, have begun issuing today’ the Minister said. ‘It is particularly important given the need to maximise cash flow, especially in the beef sector, that these payments are commencing on the earliest possible date provided for under EU legislation,” he said.
Disadvantaged Area Scheme (DAS) payments also continue to issue as cases are confirmed for payment. Under DAS, €165 million has now issued to nearly 80,000 farmers since 24 September. Minister Coveney added that “the initial advance of the Single Farm Payment , together with DAS, means approximately €650 million will have issued to Irish farmers under these two schemes in the last month alone’. This he said ‘represents a significant financial boost for both the individual farmers who will receive these payments and also the wider rural economy”.
The Minister indicated his determination to ensure that payments are maximised and to this end advance payments will continue issuing twice weekly up until 30 November, with balancing payments to issue as and from the 1st of December. “My aim continues to be to maximise payments to farmers at the earliest possible date, subject to the necessary requirements of the Schemes being met, and I am confident that the vast majority of payments will have issued by year end’, the Minister said. He concluded by “urging anybody who has received correspondence from my Department highlighting problems in relation to their application, to respond without delay as, by doing so, those cases can then be processed to finality and payments issued”.