Farmers waiting for outstanding payments have been warned to check their accounts on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM) AgFood portal because of “potential issues” last month, according to Fine Gael TD Colm Burke.
Deputy Burke told Agriland that he has been contacted by farmers who told him they were not aware of “important correspondence” from DAFM in relation to payments because it had “not shown up” on their AgFood portal account in December.
DAFM provides a range of key online services through the AgFood portal, including facilitating farmers to make applications online for te Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme, the Animal Identification and Movement System and forestry services.
The AgFood portal also gives farmers online access to the nitrogen and phosphorus statements issued by DAFM and facilitates them to make a nitrates derogation application.
According to the TD for Cork north central he understands that some farmers may have been unable to access specific correspondence on the Agfood portal in December which could mean that they may have missed out on “important updates”.
Farmers
Deputy Burke said: “I understand that some key features such as the correspondence tab for BISS was not functional for some applicants and that correspondence may have issued within the past number of weeks in respect of farm payment applications that they may not be aware of.
“I am concerned that there may be a lot of farmers that are not aware that this was an issue in December and therefore may not have responded to correspondence from DAFM within the timeframe required and some farmers may not then have received DAFM text alerts about that correspondence.”
The Fine Gael TD has advised farmers to get in contact with their agricultural advisor or urgently check their account on the AgFood portal if they currently have any outstanding payments.
Agriland has contacted DAFM for comment on potential Agfood portal issues.
Payments
Separately DAFM had paid out an additional €8.18 million in farm scheme payments in the third week of 2024.
The latest payments come as department officials continue to work through outstanding applications.
Data published by the department shows that €5.62 million was paid to farmers under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) in the week ending January 19.
DAFM said that 118,005 farmers have now received payments totaling €802.25 million under these schemes.