What should farmers know about transferring entitlements?

There is now less than a month to the deadline for farmers to submit applications to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to transfer entitlements.

The Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme payment is based on the number of hectares farmed and the number and value of payment entitlements held.

Farmers receive an allocation of payment entitlements for their farm under BISS which replaced the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A farmer must declare at least 1ha of eligible farmland for each payment entitlement to qualify for their full payment.

Transfer deadline

The department has said that all applications to transfer entitlements must be received on or before midnight on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

Applications to transfer entitlements must be made through the department’s online platform, www.agfood.ie.

In the event that applications are received after this date, they must be accompanied with force majeure evidence in order to be considered, meaning extraordinary circumstances which prevented the applications being made on time.

available, Basic Payment Scheme, Broadband, BPS Greenhouse Herdwatch BPS CSO entitlements

In cases where a change to a BISS scheme online application results in a farmer not having enough land to use all of their entitlements, they can submit a transfer application up until midnight on May 31, 2024.

This option is only available to farmers who can show they have made a change to their BISS application by that date and the alteration has directly led to the need to transfer entitlements.

If an entire farm holding or ownership of a herd number is transferred between the date of a BISS application and May 31, 2024, the new owner and the transferor must both complete a declaration of undertaking form.

This form, which is available on the DAFM website, must be submitted online with the transfer of entitlements application.

Entitlements

BISS entitlements may only be transferred to an active farmer in the same EU member state, except in the case of inheritance or anticipated inheritance (gift).

Entitlements may be transferred with or without land, but cannot be transferred more than once in a scheme year, unless through inheritance or anticipated inheritance.

The farmer making the transfer and farmer receiving the transfer complete an online transfer of entitlements application.

Applications may also be submitted by groups such as joint herd number, a registered or unregistered partnership, or a company.

The department states that there are a number of means by which entitlements can be transferred, including:

Inheritance;
Gift;
Lease;
Sale;
Scission (division of an unregistered farm partnership);
Merger (forming an unregistered farm partnership);
Change of legal entity;
Change of registration details of herd number.

It should be noted that leased or rented payment entitlements will revert to the farmer making the transfer at the end of the relevant scheme year, this is not considered a form of transfer.

All entitlements are subject to a two-year usage rule, meaning that any entitlement that remains unused for two consecutive years will revert to the National Reserve.

As 2023 was the first year of the new CAP, usage dates were reset and this rule did not apply.

However, if payment entitlements were not used in 2023 they will revert to National Reserve in 2025 if they are also not used in 2024.

In the event that an application is to be withdrawn, a completed transfer of entitlements application withdrawal request form must be uploaded by both the farmer making the transfer and the farmer receiving the transfer before the application is processed.