The EU Commission has omitted Ireland from its list of member states permitted to make a 70% advance BPS/Greening payment.
Reacting to this news, the Deputy President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), Pat McCormack, said the omission was not acceptable.
McCormack urged the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, to revisit the matter with the commission and insist that Ireland is added to the group of 10 member states presently permitted to make the 70% advance payment from October 16.
As it stands an advance payment of 50% will be issued to farmers in the Republic of Ireland on October 16, with balancing payments being issued from the beginning of December.
The deputy president said that “difficult climatic conditions” cited by the commission as the reason for allowing the 10 specified states to proceed with advance payments could most certainly be applied to most of Ireland – the northern and border counties in particular.
“The ICMSA does not see how the kind of weather we’re experiencing all over Ireland over the last six to eight weeks is, in any respect, more farm-friendly or better than the weather they’re getting in Belgium that the commission deems ‘difficult’ enough to warrant permitting 70% advance payments.
“The fact is that Ireland’s weather has been downright difficult for at least the last six weeks and just last week farmers in Donegal experienced a weather event described as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ wind and rain storm that did very serious structural and ground damage,” McCormack added.
If that isn’t a difficult climatic condition then it’s difficult to know what is.
“The commission is apparently willing to consider adding two or three more states to the list of those eligible to make a larger advance payment and Minister Creed now needs to go to the commission and convince them that the Irish situation is more than sufficiently serious to get us onto the list,” McCormack concluded.
‘Need has increased considerably’
Prior to Ireland being omitted, McCormack had last week outlined that the need for Minister Creed to secure a 70% advance payment of the BPS/Greening payment had increased considerably in recent weeks.
This, he said, was due to the adverse weather conditions throughout the country that is causing difficulties for all farmers.
McCormack noted that while the situation in Co. Donegal is particularly bad with local farmers suffering severe losses, right throughout the country – specifically the northern half – land is extremely heavy and wet with cattle having to be housed, while crops remain unharvested in the fields.
The deputy president said that for many years farmers have received a 70% advance payment on October 16. This schedule has been built into loan repayment schedules, while also assuming importance in the context of paying annual income tax payment, he added.