The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that the current budget for the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme is sufficient to cover expected levels of eligible calves.

The objective of the scheme is to provide support to dairy farmers to improve the animal health and welfare of the national dairy herd by using better genetic merit beef sires.

Participants are required to have calves born in the scheme year which must be sired from a stock bull or AI straw with a minimum rating of 3 stars on the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Dairy Beef Index (DBI) and on the beef sub-index of the DBI.

Farmers who satisfy the scheme requirements will receive a payment of €20 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 50 calves per holding.

The scheme is part of the implementation of the government’s ten-point action plan to support the development of a dairy-beef sector in Ireland.

Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme

The scheme opened for applications on March 21, 2024 and closed for applications on May 15.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) facilitated the acceptance of late applications for a 25-calendar day period after the closing date, at the end of which a total of 13,541 applications had been received.

In a parliamentary question, Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill asked the minister if the budget would be increased “in light of the number of applications”.

In response, Minister McConalogue explained that the scheme is co-funded by the National Exchequer (60%) and the EU (40%).

There is a 4-year allocation of €25 million under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan “equating to an annual budget of €6.25 million covering 312,500 calves per year”.

“A provision for a linear reduction has been included in the scheme terms and conditions,” the minister added.

He said that “preliminary analysis indicates that the number of eligible calves for applicants to the scheme in 2024 is broadly in line with the €6.25 million budget allocation, as some 3,000 of the applications under the scheme currently have no eligible calves”.

He said that DAFM “will continue to monitor eligible calf numbers as the year progresses”.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued over €1.1 million to farmers in payments under Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).

In the week up to Friday (June 28), the department paid out €819,943 to farmers in TAMS 3, while those in TAMS 2 received €312,610.

Almost €457 million has now been issued to farmers under TAMS 2; total payments for TAMS 3 stand at €2.3 million.

Earlier this month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue announced the commencement of payments in respect of claims submitted under TAMS 3.

The minister recently confirmed that a review of the department reference costs for TAMS is planned to take place in the coming months.

“A further review of the reference costs is envisaged in the second half of this year, with a publication of the revised costs likely in mid-2025,” he said.

DAFM

The latest data published by DAFM also shows that farmers received a further €190,797 in 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) payments.

In total, 120,405 farmers have now received BISS and CRISS payments totalling nearly €844 million.

This figure includes the 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers payments (€37.4 million), as well as the 2023 National Reserve (€4.6 million) payments.

€104,128 was issued in 2023 Eco-Scheme payments during the past week. 120,781 farmers have now received a total of €310 million under the scheme.

The department cleared a further €85,261 in payments as part of the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).

The department issued over €44,000 in outstanding 2023 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC) payments, while €11,000 was issued for the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

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A review of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) reference costs for the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) is planned to take place in the coming months.

The move was confirmed by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Jackie Cahill.

Deputy Cahill, who is also chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, asked about the methodology used to establish the reference costs used for the scheme.

TAMS

Minister McConalogue said that reference costs for TAMS 3 were increased “as appropriate” across all schemes, based on a review carried out between late 2022 and early 2023.

“The reference costs are updated periodically to ensure that they reflect actual/market costs for the construction of farm buildings and facilities, and for farm equipment.

“To achieve this objective, the review of the reference costs is based on a comparison with receipted costs.

“For an effective comparison, an adequate number of receipted claims are required.

“A further review of the reference costs is envisaged in the second half of this year, with a publication of the revised costs likely in mid-2025,” he said.

Reference costs

Farming organisations have repeatedly called for a review of the TAMS reference costs to account for increased costs of materials.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Rural Development chair, John Curran previously said that the current reference costs are “very much out of kilter with prevailing costs of materials”.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) also said that some farmers are “no longer even considering TAMS” due to the costings.

Pat O’Brien, the association’s Farm Business Committee chair, said that the costings have been “obsolete and demonstrably out of step with real costs for the last five years”.

He added that due to concrete inflation and the mica levy the reference costs have been “pushed into a fantasy land that has them completely detached from any semblance of reality”.

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A second pay run is commencing this week in respect of balancing payments for farmers in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said today (Thursday, June 27) that payments will issue to 4,404 ACRES Tranche 1 participants across both the ACRES General and ACRES Co-operation approaches.

“As participants received either an advance payment last November or an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000 in February and March of this year, the €4.3 million in payments that I am announcing today are balancing payments.

“This brings payments made to date to ACRES participants to just over €233 million,” he said.

Balancing payments

The Minister added that ACRES balancing payments will continue to issue to participants on a fortnightly basis, until all participants are paid in respect of 2023 scheme year.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has published a series of information leaflets on its website to provide an overview of the way in which payments are calculated.

Following the issue of ACRES payments, the department said that each recipient will receive a letter detailing information about the scores that determined the level of their payment.

ACRES payments for 2023 commenced over the period December 2023 to January 2024, when €88.35 million was issued in advance payments to 19,719 ACRES General participants.

In recognition of the time required to fully process all payments, Minister McConalogue issued interim payments to all other participants in February and March 2024.

Payments of €4,000 were made to 6,917 ACRES General participants and €5,000 to 18,144 ACRES Co-Operation participants, totalling €119.56 million.

The total payments issued in June 2024 relate to 31,081 participants, and come to a value of €25.4 million.

The department said that those who have received interim payments will have the value of those interim payments deducted from the payments issuing in the coming days.

In relation to outstanding payments, the department said that many will continue to require engagement with farmers and/or advisors, and “every effort will be made to resolve these as soon as possible”.

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The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has sought clarity on the government’s position when it comes to the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget.

During this week’s European Agriculture and Fisheries (AGRIFISH) Council meeting, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Charlie McConalogue called for “a robust CAP budget”.

“Farmers are being asked to do more. Their role in food production and our environmental ambition must be adequately supported to achieve a competitive, sustainable and resilient sector,” he said.

ICMSA

ICMSA president Denis Drennan said that farmers would welcome “the strong words”, but also want reassurance that the Irish government intends to seek increased EU funding for agriculture.

“Farmers are justifiably angry and hugely frustrated by the current policy agenda and lack of a reasonable return from the marketplace and inadequate EU supports – all driven, caused or unaddressed by both national and EU policies.

“At this stage and in advance of the negotiations on the next CAP, it is only fair and reasonable that the minister and the government spell out clearly what their intentions are in relation to the CAP budget and schemes and actually outline – in figures – what they mean by ‘robust’.

“Does the government intend to support a substantially increased budget of the scale so clearly required, or they happy to accept a budget which has been declining over many years and which inflation has now undermined to the point where it is demonstrably unable to support farmers?” he said.

The ICMSA president said that CAP has been “completely underfunded”, particularly since the introduction of decoupling.

“The EU has a choice: to a deliver a significantly enhanced CAP budget and make a real difference in maintaining the family farm model of farming or continue the downsizing of CAP and accelerating the slide into irrelevance,” Drennan said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now approved over 72% of applications made under tranche 2 of the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

According to the latest data published by the department, 6,584 out of 9,110 applications have now been cleared by officials.

A further 575 applications were approved in the past two weeks.

1,844 applications are still deemed as being “in progress”, 476 have been rejected and 206 were withdrawn by applicants.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the 10 TAMS 3 schemes:

The department data also provided an update on the status of tranche 1 applications made under TAMS with 250 applications still “in progress”.

Since last December, 7,136 out of 8,203 tranche 1 applications have been approved, 641 were rejected and 176 withdrawn by farmers.

The latest data from the department shows that €1.5 million has been paid out to farmers under the new TAMS 3 during the past fortnight.

Over €196,000 has been issued to farmers under the previous scheme (TAMS 2) during the same period.

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The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that the criteria on cash payments for schemes, such as the National Farm Safety Measure, is too strict and should be revised.

The comments follow a recent parliamentary question from Kerry Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin who asked why a cash payment receipt made by a farmer for safety equipment was deemed ineligible under the scheme.

Deputy Griffin queried if this decision would be reviewed, “given the government commitment that public bodies are to continue to accept cash payments”.

Cash payments

Launched in 2023, the National Farm Safety Measure incentivises farmers to purchase and use farm safety equipment.

The measure provided 60% funding for investment in power take-off (PTO) shaft covers and quad helmets.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue told Deputy Griffin that “the eligibility requirements for grant aid under the measure are set out in the terms and conditions”.

The minister said that in line with other Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) schemes, such as Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS), “condition 6.(j) states that cash payments are ineligible”.

“Applicants are required to provide evidence of payment in addition to a receipt,” he said.

The minister said that the farmer in question had submitted an application for payment for a PTO shaft cover and a quad helmet.

“The application for payment was selected for a prepayment inspection which was carried out on May 22, 2024.

“In accordance with the measure’s terms and conditions, the quad helmet was deemed ineligible for payment as it was paid for in cash.

“I can confirm that my department will be issuing the payment for the PTO shaft cover shortly,” he said.

Bureaucracy

The IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee chair Teresa Roche said that the refusal by the department to recognise cash payments for farm safety equipment is “bureaucracy gone mad”.

She said that it would not be too difficult to change the terms and conditions “to bring some common sense to the regulations”.

“We are encouraging farmers to have safety equipment that will minimise the risk on their farms.

“For the department of agriculture to disallow the grant on the grounds that an electronic payment wasn’t made just doesn’t add up,” she said.

Roche said that the older cohort of farmers, for whom safety equipment such as a quad helmet is very important, is also the group that may not be set up to make electronic payments.

“The minister may be quoting the terms and conditions here, but there has to be a reasonable approach to how schemes are administered.

“I would ask him to re-visit this and allow what would be a practical flexibility under the Farm Safety Measure,” she said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued €13.1 million in outstanding scheme payments to farmers over the past fortnight.

The majority of the payments, just over €11 million, were made under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

The data published today (Friday, June 21) show that 120,378 farmers have now received BISS and CRISS payments totalling €843 million.

This figure includes 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) with €37.2 million and 2023 National Reserve (€4.6 million).

This week, the department confirmed a supplementary payment run totalling €9 million under the 2023 CRISS and the CISYF.

DAFM

The data shows that €1.5 million has been paid out under the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS 3), while over €196,000 has been issued to farmers under the previous scheme (TAMS 2).

€223,000 was paid out under the 2023 Eco-Scheme, meaning that 120,715 farmers have now received a total of €310 million under the scheme.

The department also paid out €86,064 to participants in the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS), along with €88,000 to those in the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).

€8,237 was issued in outstanding payments for the Protein Aid Scheme 2023 and €8,758 for the Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS).

Schemes

Meanwhile, the department has confirmed that it received 617 late applications for this year’s BISS and other area-based schemes following the May 15 deadline.

The department accepted late applications until June 9, however a 1% per day penalty will be applied in these instances.

Over 124,000 BISS and other area-based schemes were submitted for 2024 ahead of the deadline this year.

Farmers were able to make a changes to their scheme applications through the department’s online system until May 31, without any penalty.

“The department received a total of 5,657 late amendments submitted between May 16-31, made on behalf of 5,121 unique herds,” a DAFM spokesperson confirmed to Agriland.

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The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has claimed that the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) is “short changing” farmers, as some delays under the scheme persist.

IFA Hill Farming chairperson Caillin Conneely said that “any faith in ACRES is wearing thin” among hill farmers and those in special areas of conservation (SAC) or co-operation project (CP) zones under the scheme.

“ACRES is becoming a farce at this stage. We were promised up to €10,500 each year for the five years of the scheme, but it’s looking like we won’t get the colour of it at this stage,” Conneely said.

“Minister McConalogue assured us only a few weeks ago that all farmers would get their balancing ACRES payments in June, and that approvals for non-productive investments (NPIs) would commence in late summer.

“Now these commitments have been watered down and we hear that NPI decision letters are planned to issue before the end of this year and that more than one-third of tranche 1 applicants will get no balancing payments at all in June,” he added.

Conneely expressed concern that farmers may see their payments for Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) or the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) cut because of unintentional over-payments in ACRES.

“It’s a mess, and it’s just not acceptable,” he commented.

IFA rural development chairperson John Curran said that farm finances have hit hard due weather conditions, and that the department “cannot stand over pulling any over-payment from the next farm payment”.

“It might be the easiest option for them to administer, but it isn’t fair on the farmer who entered into this scheme in good faith to undergo necessary actions and be paid amounts owed on-time,” Curran said.

He called for an agreed repayment schedule to be developed based on a case-by-case, spanning the lifetime of ACRES.

“Otherwise, we are potentially looking at serious cashflow problems later this year,” he said.

“We need a rethink here. If the ACRES scheme is too complex, change it. Farmers can’t continually be at a loss because the department can’t issue payments, or approvals, or scores in time,” Curran added.

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The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is vital for Europe, according to outgoing European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski.

The comments came as representatives from across the European Union met in Brussels to discuss the future of the policy.

Following the recent European elections, a new European commissioner for agriculture will be selected in the coming months.

CAP

Commissioner Wojciechowski, who has been in charge of the farming brief for the past five years, appealed to European leaders to recognise the importance of CAP.

“To every prime minister and minister, to every member of this committee, no matter what area of policy you focus on, no matter what region of Europe you represent, the Common Agricultural Policy is front, central and fundamental to your work,” he said.

The commissioner said that there is no other single policy which contributes more to the “essential elements and strategic interests” of the European Union.

“Our security, defensive security and energy security are nothing without food security,” he said.

Commissioner Wojciechowski said that CAP is important for the health and wellbeing of EU citizens and protection of the environment.

He also pointed to the contribution of CAP towards the economic development of the union, especially in rural and remote regions “that can often be left behind”.

“It makes a vital contribution to our democracy by ensuring food security, as well as our good relations with the world by reinforcing global food supplies.

“In short, we cannot have a strong European Union without a strong Common Agricultural Policy.

“Let us work together to shape a strong, effective and sustainable policy for the future of every farmer, every region and every citizen,” he said.

Budget

Meanwhile, the European Commission yesterday (Wednesday, June 19) proposed a similar funding allocation for the CAP as part of its draft annual budget for 2025.

The commission is seeking to earmark €53.8 billion for the CAP next year, unchanged from the 2024 budget.

The draft budget also includes €900 million for the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, which is down from €1.1 billion in 2024.

The commission said that the fund is to “strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors and to provide the necessary scope for crisis management”.

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The European Commission has today (Wednesday, June 19) proposed a similar funding allocation for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as part of its draft annual budget for 2025.

The commission is seeking to earmark €53.8 billion for the CAP next year, unchanged from the 2024 budget.

The draft budget also includes €900 million for the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, which is down from €1.1 billion in 2024.

The commission said that the fund is to “strengthen the resilience of the agri-food and fisheries sectors and to provide the necessary scope for crisis management”.

Budget

Overall, the commission has today (Wednesday, June 19) proposed an annual EU budget of €199.7 billion for 2025, up from €189.3 billion this year.

The draft budget will be complemented by an estimated €72 billion of payments under NextGenerationEU, the EU’s post-pandemic recovery instrument. That figure stood at €113 billion this year.

The commission said that this “substantial financial envelope will support the EU in meeting its political priorities while integrating the changes agreed in the mid-term revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)”.

The document also proposes allocate €2.4 billion for environment and climate action, which is unchanged from this year.

Of that total, €771 million will be directed to the LIFE programme to support climate change mitigation and adaptation.

There will also be €1.5 billion for the Just Transition Fund “to make sure that the green transition works for all”.

€49.2 billion is proposed for regional development and cohesion to support economic, social and territorial cohesion, as well as infrastructure supporting the green transition and EU priority projects.

The draft annual budget for 2025 will have to be formally adopted by the budgetary authority before the end of the year.

Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for Budget and Administration, said that the EU budget “continues to provide Europe with the means to tackle current and future challenges”.

He said the budget would support “the green and digital transitions” and increase the union’s overall resilience.

“We have also been able to strengthen our position externally: the mid-term revision of the MFF was essential to enable our union to respond to the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine on a stable footing, reinforce our capacity to respond to natural disasters and deliver answers to the global competition on key critical technologies,” he said.

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Bord na Móna is to develop 79km of new walking and cycling trails as part of a new Fáilte Ireland scheme unveiled today (Wednesday, June 19).

Bord na Móna has been awarded €3.6 million towards the new project as part of Fáilte Ireland’s EU Just Transition Regenerative Tourism and Placemaking Scheme, which aims to boost tourism and creating sustainable economic opportunities in the midlands.

In total, more than €32 million in investment grants will be injected into tourism related projects.

According Fáilte Ireland, Bord na Móna’s new walking and cycling trails, which are subject to planning consents and funding approval, will be established in a number of areas.

Bord na Móna

Head of land and habitats at Bord na Móna, Ger Breen, said today: “The sites selected for these trails will deliver significant benefits for the wider community, improving connectivity between trails and local towns and villages.

“We look forward to working with Fáilte Ireland and local authorities to realise these projects.”

New walking and cycling trails will be developed by Bord na Móna in:

• Longford – between Lanesborough and Cloondara;
• Roscommon – between Termonbarry and Roosky;
• Westmeath – between Athlone and Ballinahown;
• Offaly East – between Grand Canal Greenway and Mount Lucas;
• Offaly West – around Clonmacnoise, Ballinahown and Lough Boora;
• Tipperary – between Littleton/Lough Doire Bhuile.

In addition to Bord na Móna’s trail development project, Fáilte Irelands has approved €27.1 million for 22 projects under the scheme, which includes enhancements to local authority and state agency tourism projects.

A €5.5 million Digital Transformation Programme will also support up to 85 tourism enterprises to expand their digital capabilities.

This initiative is part of a broader effort to modernise the tourism sector and improve visitor experiences through digital innovation.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, said the projects mark the first steps in the “regenerative tourism development journey in the midlands”.

“The projects funded support our move as a nation towards a low-carbon economy, in line with the Programme for Government commitment for the development of a Sustainable Tourism Policy, which will support sustainable economic development and job creation,” she said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that it received 617 late scheme applications following the May 15 deadline.

The department accepted late applications until June 9, however a 1% per day penalty will be applied in these instances.

Over 124,000 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes were submitted ahead of the original deadline this year.

The figures include 2,437 Temporary Reference Number applications, applications where no BISS entitlements are held and applications without any claimed area.

These applications are subject to administrative checks to determine eligibility.

Farmers were able to make a changes to their scheme applications through the department’s online system until May 31, without any penalty.

“The department received a total of 5,657 late amendments submitted between May 16-31, made on behalf of 5,121 unique herds,” a DAFM spokesperson confirmed to Agriland.

DAFM previously confirmed that Cork was the county with the highest number of BISS and other area-based scheme applications this year.

12,344 applications were made from farmers in the Rebel county, followed by Galway at 11,686, and Mayo with 11,025.

The county with the lowest number of applications was Dublin with 605, followed by Louth with 1,459 and Carlow with 1,579.

Meanwhile, the most recent data published by the department shows that an additional €135,000 was paid out to farmers for the 2023 BISS and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) in the week up to June 7.

The department said that 120,343 farmers have now received 2023 BISS and CRISS payments totalling €833 million.

This figure includes the 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers payments (€33 million), as well as the 2023 National Reserve (€4.5 million) payments.

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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has stressed that all solar photo-voltaic (PV) installations under the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) grant process must be signed off by a “registered” electrician.

According to Minister Charlie McConalogue Solar PV systems grant-aided under TAMS 3 must comply with specification S198 and that it must be a “registered Safe Electric Ireland electrician” who completes the relevant forms.

The minister told the Dáil: “I wish to point out that any solar PV installer included on my department’s solar PV registered installer list is required to submit a completed solar PV installer registration form and an up-to-date certificate of public and employer’s liability insurance.

“It is also a requirement that the electrician has completed training courses in solar photovoltaic panel implementation and electrical installation of microgenerators.

“A Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, award certification for training modules 6N0306 and 6N0307 or equivalent is acceptable. There are a number of training providers nationwide for these courses.”

But the Fine Gael TD for Cork East, David Stanton, highlighted to the minister in the Dáil what he described as “a big gap” in relation to the issue of electrical contractors and forms for the solar PV systems under TAMS 3.

Solar PV

Deputy Stanton told the Dáil that “more than half of the TAMS 2 processed grants were processed on the basis of forms that were not from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) but from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) instead.

“Those forms are not the same. There is a big anomaly here,” he warned.

Deputy Stanton also claimed that there “is no way of checking” whether the person who completes Form S198 “is an approved Safe Electric Ireland installer”.

“If a person has been taken off the Safe Electric Ireland list, there does not seem to be any way of checking that.

“In addition, the Department of Agriculture has one list of companies and installers.

“However, SEAI has two lists, one list for companies and a separate list for installers. There are huge anomalies here,” Deputy Stanton added.

He said that DAFM had accepted applications under TAMS 3 – which includes solar PV panels and solar PV rechargeable batteries – “that did not come in the shape of the official S198 forms”.

“More than half of them were for TAMS 2.

“The number is 129 of 236 paid. This is very serious. I ask the minister to set up an inquiry into it as a matter of urgency,” the Fine Gael TD for Cork East said.

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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has today (Wednesday, June 19) confirmed that Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) balancing payments will start this week.

Minister Charlie McConalogue said: “Payments will issue to 26,677 ACRES Tranche 1 participants across both the ACRES General and ACRES Co-operation approaches.

“As participants received either an advance payment last November or an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000 in February and March of this year, the €21.1 million in payments that I am announcing today are balancing payments”.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) payments made to date to ACRES participants now total “almost €230 million.”

DAFM has outlined that in the region of 4,000 more farmers will be issued a balancing payment before the end of June, subject to clearance.

Following this, payments will continue to issue on a fortnightly basis as contracts are cleared for payment.

Each recipient will also receive a letter from DAFM detailing information about the scores that determined the level of their payment. 

According to the department there will be opportunities for ACRES CP participants “to add value and increase the level” of their annual payment over the lifetime of their contracts.

“A farmer’s contract under ACRES is for five years, and ACRES CP participants will be able to avail of Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs) to improve environmental outcomes and to increase the score received and ultimately, the level of payment,” DAFM stated.

In addition to the core payment to a maximum of €7,000 per year that is available to CP participants, a further €17,500 is available over the five-year period of the scheme for the implementation of NPIs and LAs, bringing the potential ACRES contract value for CP participants to €52,500 over the five years.

Decision letters in relation to the Tranche 1 NPI application process are planned to issue before the end of this year, and it is anticipated that the application window for Landscape Actions will open early in 2025, the department also outlined.

ACRES

Meanwhile DAFM today also announced that in partnership with the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Teams it has developed a number of information leaflets that provide “an overview” of the way in which payments are calculated.

The department said this is in recognition of the “large-scale results-based element of ACRES, which will be new for many participants”.

The information leaflets are available to access on DAFM’s website.

Minister Charlie McConalogue today acknowledged that “scoring, and associated results-based payments, is a new approach for a lot of farmers”.

“I was pleased to have been able to secure places for all farmers that wanted to participate in ACRES Tranche 2, bringing the total number of farmers in the scheme to over 54,000.

“These applicants will shortly receive an information pack consisting of an approval summary – which will give them information on the actions approved under their contract – and a copy of the Farmland Plant Identification book. 

“This is an important guide for farmers to help identify a variety of plants that can have a beneficial effect on our biodiversity and the scoring of their land for the results-based payments,” Minister McConalogue added.

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A supplementary pay run under the 2023 Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) and the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) has been announced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

A total of €9 million will be paid out under this supplementary payment run, with €5.5 million going to CRISS applicants and €3.5 million to CISYF applicants in the coming days.

The CRISS rate is increasing from €42.67/ha to €44.65/ha. A farmer with 30ha will receive €59.40 as part of this supplementary payment.

These extra payments are because of an increase in the rate per hectare for each scheme.

The CISYF rate is increasing from €152.05 to €169.06/ha. A young farmer with 50ha will receive €850 as part of this supplementary payment.

The revised rates have been chosen to ensure that farmers receive the maximum amount of money possible under both schemes and that the department meets its spending target per scheme.

To date CRISS payments in excess of €116 million have been paid to over 120,000 applicants, with a further €33 million paid out under CISYF to 6,200 young farmers.

CRISS and CISYF

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said: “I appreciate the amount per farmer may be small in some cases, particularly in relation to CRISS, but it’s important that we ensure the maximum amount of funds are distributed.”

“The CRISS and CISYF payments are important elements of the Pillar 1 payments.

“Ensuring that young farmers are supported is critically important and this extra funding combined with the original payments that farmers received will help support their farming business,” Minister McConalogue said.

Farmers wishing to contact DAFM regarding their CRISS or CISYF payment, can ring the direct payments helpline or submit queries on the agfood wesbite, where a detailed breakdown of payments can also be accessed.

The post Supplementary pay run for CRISS and CISYF announced appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to simplify the rules for geotagged photos to reduce “the administrative burden for farmers”.

The move is part of the commission’s general simplification of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to ensure it “responds to the challenges facing the agricultural sector”.

Geotagged photos were first introduced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in 2018 as an option for farmers to support their scheme application and establish the eligibility status of a parcel.

DAFM subsequently developed a geotagged photo app for smartphone and mobile devices known as AgriSnap which enables farmers or their advisor to send land parcel geotagged pictures and information.

Geotagged

The European Commission had previously stipulated in 2022 that each member state had an obligation to ensure that it used geotagged photographs to monitor at least 70% of agricultural activities in relation to eligibility conditions by 2027.

Now it is proposing in a new draft act give member states “greater flexibility” in the inclusion of geotagged photos in the Area Monitoring System (AMS) during the programming period of their CAP.

The commission has detailed that “after the experience gained in the first year of the implementation of the AMS and difficulties expressed by the farmers’ community” its position is that member states “need more flexibility in the use and processing of geotagged photos”.

It states in the draft act that member states should be able to take advantage of all technological solutions while having the necessary flexibility to implement their area monitoring system.

“The priority should no longer be given to geotagged photos in comparison to other data.

“Likewise, it is also necessary to remove the obligation of member states to ensure, before January 1, 2027, that at least 70 % of interventions with eligibility conditions that can be monitored only with geotagged photos are subject to the area monitoring system,” the commission added.

It is now inviting feedback on its latest draft act which it has stated will be taken into account before it is finalised – the feedback period is open until July 9, 2024.

The post Commission wants to simplify the rules on the use of geotagged photos appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has demanded that payments to farmers under the new Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) are made quickly.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue today (Tuesday, June 11) announced the commencement of payments in respect of claims submitted under the scheme.

Payments totaling almost €1.4 million under TAMS are set to issue this week, and will continue to issue on a weekly basis as claims are submitted in respect of completed investment.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is also continuing to issue approvals across all TAMS schemes.

Over 12,000 approvals to commence investments have been issued under tranche 1 and tranche 2 of the scheme to date.

Reacting to the announcement, IFA National Rural Development chair, John Curran said that it is essential that the maximum number of farmers are paid and paid promptly.

He said that many of these farm investments were made, and costs incurred, many months ago, particularly for mobile assets.

TAMS

Curran said that more broadly, TAMS reference costs are “very much out of kilter with prevailing costs of materials”.

“Investment ceilings and costs need to be reviewed upwards to better reflect the new cost realities. This is particularly relevant given Revenue’s changed perspective on items eligible for VAT 58 reclaims,” he said.

“There also needs to be greater minimisation of bureaucracy/verification to speed up the whole process and help ensure all funding is fully utilised.

“Any unused funding within TAMS must be retained and re-circulated for future tranches to support on-farm investment,” he added.

The post Call for prompt TAMS 3 payments and review of reference costs appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced the commencement of payments in respect of claims submitted under the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS).

Payments totaling almost €1.4 million under TAMS are set to issue this week, and will continue to issue on a weekly basis as claims are submitted in respect of completed investment.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is also continuing to issue approvals across all TAMS schemes.

So far, over 12,000 approvals to commence investments have been issued under tranche 1 and tranche 2 of the scheme.

The approvals will continue in conjunction with the issuing of scheme payments, the department said.

Commenting on the announcement of payments, Minister McConalogue said: “TAMS has been a hugely successful and beneficial scheme since its inception, with a wide range of investment items supported across all farming sectors.

“It has delivered key modernisation, environmental and safety improvements on thousands of farms across the country, while also supporting local economies in the construction phase of developments,” he added.

The minister encouraged all existing applicants with approvals to submit their payment claims as soon as they are complete.

TAMS approvals

The most recent update on TAMS approvals from the department shows that 65% of the applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of TAMS have been approved.

The latest data, published by the department yesterday (Tuesday, June 11), shows that 6,009 out of the total 9,110 applications have been cleared.

This means that an additional 297 applications were granted approval in the past week.

2,450 applications are still deemed as “in progress” and are awaiting approval, 445 have been rejected and 206 withdrawn by applicants.

The department added that 305 applications made by farmers under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 are still being considered for approval.

7,101 out of 8,203 tranche 1 applications have now been approved since last December, 621 applications have been rejected and 176 withdrawn under this initial tranche of the new scheme.

The post Minister announces start of TAMS payments appeared first on Agriland.ie.

65% of the applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) have now been approved.

The latest data published today (Monday, June 10) by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) shows that 6,009 out of the total 9,110 applications have been cleared.

This means that an additional 297 applications were granted approval in the past week.

2,450 applications are still deemed as “in progress” and are awaiting approval, 445 have been rejected and 206 withdrawn by applicants.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the 10 TAMS 3 schemes:

The department added that 305 applications made by farmers under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 are still being considered for approval.

7,101 out of 8,203 tranche 1 applications have now been approved since last December, 621 applications have been rejected and 176 withdrawn under this initial tranche of the new scheme.

The Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS) is the scheme with the highest number of tranche 1 applications still “in progress” at 129.

According to the latest update, 941 claims for payment have been submitted to DAFM under the new TAMS 3.

The department is currently processing payment claims, and it is anticipated that payments will start to issue in June in cases where there are no issues with the claim.

DAFM paid out a further €584,210 to farmers over the past week under TAMS.

The post 65% of TAMS tranche 2 applications approved appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Over €2.7 million in outstanding scheme payments have been issued this week, according to latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

The vast majority of that overall figure relates to balancing payments made to farmers under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) totalling almost €2.2 million.

The SIS is funded under Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027, and provides support to sheep farmers for carrying out actions that improve animal health and welfare in the sheep sector.

The scheme, which replaced the Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS), is co-funded by the DAFM and the EU and the payment rate is €12/ewe.

17,020 farmers have received payments under SIS worth a total of €21.3 million.

DAFM

The data shows that an additional €135,000 was paid out to farmers for the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

The data published today (Monday, June 10) show that 120,343 farmers have now received BISS and CRISS payments totalling €833 million.

This figure includes the 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers payments (€33 million), as well as the 2023 National Reserve (€4.5 million) payments.

Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) payments worth a total of €189,130 were also issued this week. To date, 3,888 farmers have received their 2023 OFS payment totalling €46.9 million.

There was €163,000 paid out under the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) this week and €47,000 under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC) scheme.

The department issued €17,000 in outstanding Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS) payments and an additional €22,000 for claims made under the 2023 Fodder Support Scheme (FSS).

TAMS

The data shows that a further €584,210 has been paid out this week under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

941 claims for payment have been submitted to DAFM under the new TAMS 3.

The department is currently processing payment claims, and it is anticipated that payments will start to issue in June in cases where there are no issues with the claim.

The post DAFM issues nearly €2.8m in outstanding scheme payments appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has said that farmers will not tolerate any further delays on Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) payments.

The president of the farm organisation Sean McNamara has called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to ensure that all remaining payments under the scheme are issued in June, as promised.

“Minister McConalogue has stated that balancing payments will be made regularly throughout June, and this commitment must be honoured. Farmers will not accept any more excuses,” he said.

ACRES

In February, the minister announced that an interim payment would be made to ACRES tranche 1 participants who had not yet received their advance payments.

The interim payment rate stood at €4,000 for those in ACRES General and €5,000 for those in the ACRES Co-operation (CP) Project.

The announcement came as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) was continuing to process payment claims for farmers in the scheme.

Sean McNamara said that the “prolonged saga of delayed ACRES payments has been ongoing for far too long, with promised payment dates repeatedly pushed back”.

“Farmers cannot be expected to do more and more on the environment if the department doesn’t have the necessary systems in place to pay farmers for the work they have done.

“ACRES is our flagship environmental scheme but leaving farmers financially stranded has left a very bad taste.

“No farmer should have to wait this long to receive any payment,” he said.

The ICSA president said that timely payments are not just a matter of financial fairness but also essential for the sustainability of many farming operations.

“Delays in payments can lead to significant cash flow problems and affect farmers’ ability to meet their financial obligations.

“This is particularly the case for low-income beef, sheep, and suckler sectors. It is imperative that Minister McConalogue follows through on his commitment this time and farmers receive what they are owed by the end of June,” he added.

The post No more excuses on ACRES payments – ICSA appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Advice has been provided to farmers regarding corrections to their 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) announced there are “two important opportunities” regarding corrections to applications in these schemes.

The first of these are preliminary checks which will identify any over-claims, overlaps or dual claims.

Notifications will be issued where the department finds such an error on the farmer’s 2024 BISS application.

Where a farmer or advisor receives a preliminary check notification, they should log on to www.agfood.ie and respond before the deadline of Friday, June 21.

Secondly, notifications relating to the Area Monitoring System (AMS) are due to begin from Thursday, June 6 for a minority of farmers.

The first round of AMS notifications are for the potential presence of artificial surfaces, for example: buildings, farmyard extensions and farm roadways, in land parcels(s).

Farmers will have until Thursday, June 20 to respond to these notifications.

Further rounds of AMS notifications will issue from July 2024 onwards.

These preliminary checks and AMS notifications allow the farmer the opportunity to rectify issues with their BISS and other area-based scheme applications, without penalty.

Farmers and advisors should check the correspondence section of their agfood.ie online account.

Where a farmer is signed up for text message alerts, a text will issue to advise them that they have a notification on their agfood.ie account.

In total, 124,274 BISS applications were submitted from across the country by the deadline of Wednesday, May 15.

This figure includes 2,482 temporary reference number applications which are currently undergoing administrative checks by the department to determine eligibility.

Meanwhile, the satellite-based AMS will be used to check farmer compliance with the extensively-grazed pasture and winter bird food measures under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The system is based on regular and systematic observation, tracking and assessment of the agricultural activities on agricultural areas using the Copernicus Sentinal Satellite data.

The post Farmers urged to correct BISS applications before penalties apply appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has today (Wednesday, June 5) announced the commencement of the 15% balancing payments to all eligible farmers under year 1 of the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS).

These balancing payments, worth €2.17 million, bring the total amount paid to over 17,020 farmers under the scheme for 2023 to €21.33 million.

The department issued the initial 85% advance payment to eligible farmers in November 2023.

However, last month it was revealed that there were over 1,400 farmers in the scheme who had yet to receive an advance payment.

Sheep Improvement Scheme

The Sheep Improvement Scheme is funded under Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023-2027, and provides support to sheep farmers for carrying out actions that improve animal health and welfare in the sheep sector.

The scheme, which replaced the Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS), is co-funded by the DAFM and the EU and the payment rate is €12/ewe.

The department said that the payments under the scheme provide “a significant financial boost to the individual farmers, the sheep sector in general and the wider rural economy”.

A further 286 new entrants joined the SIS earlier this year bringing total participation in the scheme now to 18,940.

When the SIS is combined with this year’s rollout of the National Sheep Welfare Scheme, a total of €20/ewe is available to sheep farmers in 2024.

Any farmers with outstanding queries on the SIS are being urged to respond to the department’s sheep section immediately to facilitate payment.

DAFM will continue to issue payments on an ongoing basis as outstanding queries are resolved.

Farmers have also been reminded to take care and time in carrying out the actions they have selected under both schemes in 2024 and to accurately record them within the Action Record sheets provided by DAFM.

Meanwhile, the National Sheep Welfare Scheme will remain open for late applications, with a penalty being applied, up to June 15, 2024.

Just over 17,000 farmers have already applied to join the scheme which has a budget of €15 million.

Participants are required to complete two actions to receive the full payment of €8/ewe.

The post Sheep Improvement Scheme balancing payments commence appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Independent Ireland’s European Election candidate for Ireland South, Eddie Punch said that a significant increase in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents a key objective that the next parliament must address.

Punch added that the CAP spending fell from 0.54% to 0.36% and the next EU parliament will have to “strongly campaign” for increased CAP spending.

Negotiating the Multi Annual Financial Framework (EU Budget) in 2025 will be the first step in delivering an objective, according to Punch.

The European Election candidate said this will test if established politicians are serious about the CAP, as it requires Member State governments to decide if they will increase contributions to the EU budget.

Punch said that the debate about what proportion of the EU budget is allocated to CAP, is “critical” and must be informed by the risk to food security provided by EU consumers and economy.

“The CAP costs 33c per day, for every citizen of the EU which is remarkable value for plentiful, nutritious food.

“In 2023, the EU had a net trade surplus of €70 billion for agri-food products while the CAP is actually costing €56 billion/annum. That means that we are essentially getting EU food for free, in terms of public expenditure and the EU economy,” he continued.

Punch added that this creates a problem as it is not translated into farm incomes, and unless it is fixed, very few young farmers will take on the job of feeding the EU.

According to Punch, this would prove “catastrophic” and hence why this issue should feature among the most “pressing priorities” of all European Parliament candidates.

CAP eco-scheme

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that finalisations for over 300 farmers still awaiting eco-scheme payments for 2023 will be completed by June 30 this year.

To date, eco-scheme payments have been issued to 119,165 farmers with a total value of €309 million paid.

The eco-scheme was introduced for the first time as part of Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

The payment rate depends on uptake, but is likely to be in the region of €60 to €65 for all eligible hectares covered by the commitments undertaken as part of the scheme.

The post Increasing CAP budget among ‘priorities’ in EU parliament – Punch appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is still processing 504 payment claims made by farmers under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 2).

The information was provided by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue in response to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh.

The minister could not provide a date when all of the outstanding claims would be dealt with, but said that the processing of these payments is “continuing on a weekly basis”.

According to the latest data published by the department, €177,238 was issued in TAMS payments last week.

Minister McConalogue also said that there has been 941 claims for payment submitted to his department to date under the new TAMS 3.

“My department is currently processing payment claims, and it is anticipated that payments will start to issue in June in cases where there are no issues with the claim,” he said.

TAMS

Meanwhile, DAFM has now approved 63% of the applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of TAMS 3.

Department staff approved an additional 582 applications in the week up to today (Tuesday, June 4).

This means that 5,712 out of the total 9,110 applications have now been cleared, while 419 have been rejected and 206 withdrawn.

The department added that 2,773 applications remain “in progress”.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the ten TAMS 3 schemes:

The data also shows that 330 applications made by farmers under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 are still being worked on by DAFM staff.

7,079 out of 8,203 tranche 1 applications have been approved since last December, 618 applications have been rejected and 176 withdrawn under this initial tranche of the new scheme.

The Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS) is the scheme with the highest number of tranche 1 applications still “in progress” at 141.

The Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) remains the only scheme with all applications processed under tranche 1.

The post Over 500 TAMS 2 payment claims still to be processed appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that the third amendment to Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan is currently underway.

The proposals are being examined by the government appointed CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 Monitoring Committee.

This marks the third time that Ireland has adjusted its strategic plan since it was launched in 2023.

CAP Strategic Plan

The department noted that many of the changes are minor and technical in nature, but there are two related for schemes for farmers in 2024.

In relation to the Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme (DBWS), the proposed maximum number of eligible animals will be 50, while the maximum possible payment for farmers will be €1,000 per year.

The DBWS is a breeding measure which supports farmers using genotyped and genetically superior beef sires for breeding dairy beef calves.

For Protein Aid, the ceiling will be increased from €7 million to €10 million to reflect the level of interest in the scheme from farmers in recent years.

The scheme targets an increased area of protein crops grown each year, reducing Ireland’s reliance on imported produce and improving our carbon footprint.

Committee

The amendment has been referred to the CAP Strategic Plan Monitoring Committee for consideration before being submitted to the European Commission for its approval in June.

The committee is made up of stakeholders from across the agricultural and public sector, covering climate, environmental, economic, and social concerns.

It includes representatives from farm bodies and organisations, environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs), DAFM and other government departments, agencies, local government and education and research bodies.

The role of the committee, which meets at least once a year, is to monitor the implementation of the CAP Strategic Plan, and give feedback on the annual performance reports, evaluation plan, and any amendments to the plan.

The post Third CAP Strategic Plan amendment under consideration appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has released its annual publication of beneficiaries of direct payments and other measures under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023.

EU member states are required to publish a full list of beneficiaries of all forms of CAP funding for each calendar year.

The annual publication includes the name the beneficiary (which may be an individual person, company, or other legal entity); the county or municipality where the beneficiary is resident or located; and the amount of payment received across all measures as well as particular measures.

Agriland has published an article detailing the top 10 beneficiaries nationwide, which you can read here. In this article, we reveal the top beneficiaries in each county (the names of the beneficiaries below are reproduced exactly as they appear in the department’s publication).

Starting with Leinster, we see that the highest payment in the province went to O’Shea Farms Unlimited Co of Co. Kilkenny, which received €222,637.97 in direct payments in 2023. This was the second-highest payment nationwide.

The third-highest direct payment received in Leinster in 2023 was also the third-highest payment received nationwide. This went to Godolphin Ireland Limited, based in Co. Kildare, which received €220,272.20.

The third-highest direct payment received in Leinster went to Branganstown Farms Limited of Co. Louth, which received €204,033.60.

Of the remaining nine counties in Leinster, the highest payments in four of them fell between €150,000 and €200,000; the highest payments in a further four counties fell between €100,000 and €150,000 and the highest payment in one county was less than €100,000.

The highest payments in each Leinster county are outlined in the following table:

Moving on to Munster, and the highest direct payment received was €235,530.67, which went to Artemis Farms of Co. Tipperary. This was also the highest direct payment nationwide for 2023.

Castlecor Potatoes Unlimited in Co. Cork received €219,631.18, the fourth-highest figure nationally, while Cocow Farm Limited in Co. Kerry received €200,234.69, the seventh-highest figure nationally.

In Co. Waterford, the highest payment went to John & Peter Queally, which amounted to €192,133.29, the 10th highest figure nationwide.

John O’Loughlin of Co. Clare and Heathfield Dairy Farms Ltd in Co. Limerick received €124,632.00 and €125,230.08 respectively.

Now looking at Connacht, the highest direct payment went to Hans Weirner Meis of Co. Galway, who received €189,701.50.

Patricia Sheila Kelly of Co. Mayo received €135,721.97, while Padraig McGuinness of Co. Leitrim received €130,893.67.

In Co. Roscommon, €104,529.81 in direct payments went to Hilltop Dairies Ltd, while Michael Barrett of Co. Sligo received €94,187.00.

None of the highest recipients in Connacht featured in the top 10 beneficiaries nationwide.

Finally, looking at Ulster, Binnasruell Farm Ltd of Co. Donegal received €126,069.64, while Sean & Ciara Brady of Co. Cavan saw direct payments worth €110,687.48.

Finally in terms of counties based in the Republic of Ireland, Wilson Farm Ltd in Co. Monaghan received €78,114.05.

The publication also includes beneficiaries based in Norther Ireland who received funding through Ireland’s CAP programme.

The highest beneficiary in that case was Howard A Lynn, who received €32,399.04.

The post Where did the top direct payments in each county go in 2023? appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Latest figures released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show that a Tipperary based business, Artemis Farms, received a total of €235,530.67 in direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) last year.

This was the largest direct payment under CAP in the country according to the figures published by DAFM – EU member states are required to publish a list of beneficiaries of all forms of CAP funding each year.

The annual publication on the department website includes the name of the beneficiary (which may be an individual person, company or other legal entity); the county or municipality where the beneficiary is resident; and the amount of payment for a particular CAP measure.

Payments

After Artemis Farms –  who took number one place in the top 10 CAP direct payment beneficiaries list for 2023 – the beneficiary which received the next biggest payment was Co. Kilkenny based O’ Shea Farms, who received €222,637.97.

They were followed by Co. Kildare based Godolphin Ireland Limited who received a total of €220,272.20 in direct payments under CAP.

Number four in the top 10 list for 2023 was Castlecor potatoes, based in Co. Cork who received €219,631.18.

They were followed by Co. Cork based Ghillsdltd – also referred to as Tbrownaodonovan – it received a total of €212,964.39.

Next was Co. Louth Branganstown Farms Ltd which received €204,033.60 in direct payments under the Common Agricultural Policy.

Number seven in the top 10 CAP direct payment beneficiaries list 2023 was Co. Kerry based Cocow Farm Ltd, which received €200,234.69 in payments.

Next was Bellingham Farms in Co. Louth which received €193,576.93.

Number nine in the 2023 top 10 CAP direct payment beneficiaries list for 2023 was Gillstown Dairy Partnership in Co. Meath who received €192,415.03.

Finally Co. Waterford based John and Peter Queally received a total of €192,133.29 which placed them in 10th place in the 2023 list.

The post Who got the top 10 direct payments under CAP in 2023? appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will continue to adapt to include “simplification” and flexibility for farmers following protests across Europe this year, according to the EU Commission.

The CAP simplifications already adopted this year are designed to “strike a balance” between maintaining the necessity of CAP in transitioning EU agriculture to sustainable farming and the objective to reach a quick agreement between the European Parliament and the council.

A senior spokesperson for the EU Commission said: “Farmers are first and foremost affected by climate change themselves. It is drought and flooding that are destroying crops.

“It is hail and frost that are destroying fruit and vegetable yields. Adaptation is no longer an option, it is a necessity.”

The commission reformed the CAP to reward farmers for additional work they do to help achieve climate and environment objectives.

“The current CAP is the most ambitious EU agriculture policy ever in terms of climate and environment ambition,” the spokesperson said.

The new CAP will begin to be discussed in 2025, due to enter into force in 2028, and will continue to focus on the aim to be climate neutral by 2050.

Simplification measures

The new aim will be focused on keeping the sector productive and competitive, while also delivering on climate objectives, according to the EU Commission.

The commission is also looking at questions raised about taking weather flexibilities into consideration, and different way for farmers to gain rewards through the market.

The conditionality system, and the budgetary ringfencing alongside an array of other key tools of the CAP’s green architecture, such as minimum spending requirements for eco-schemes and rural development remain in place.

This is to ensure an overall higher level of ambition of the current CAP compared to the past.

Member States now have the possibility to strengthen the voluntary aspect of their CAP Strategic Plans.

The commission now also offers them the option to adapt their plans more frequently, notably with a view to strengthening climate and environment aspects.

“What is important is to get the balance right and to ensure that the transition to sustainable food systems is just and fair for everyone,” the spokesperson said.

The post Focus to be on simplification of CAP following EU protests appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Pippa Hackett has announced the start of the 2023 balancing payments under the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).

Over 85% of farmers in the OFS will receive their balancing payments this week, which will total €6.8 million.

Payments are expected to be in farmers’ bank accounts in the coming days. The department will continue to process remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria.

Minister Hackett said this processing will happen “as a matter of urgency”.

“The timely processing of payments is a key priority for [the] department. I know how crucial payments are, especially after the difficult winter we have had,” Minister Hackett said.

She added: “The land area in organics has trebled in the last three years… These OFS payments are a key support measure, and I would encourage all farmers to have an open mind about their farming enterprise, to crunch the numbers and consider whether it makes sense for them too to become an organic farmer.”

A total budget of €256 million has been allocated to the OFS over the lifetime of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan.

The minister also issued a reminder of the Organic Processing Investment Grant (OPIG) scheme, which is currently open, with a 60% grant rate to invest in processing facilities.

“By investing in organic processing capacity through this grant scheme, we are investing in the value of the primary producers’ product,” Minister Hackett said.

The reopening of the OPIG scheme was announced earlier this month. This tranche of the scheme has a budget of €1.5 million to support investments in the Irish organic processing sector.

It brings to €3 million the grant aid available to organic processors in 2024, according to Minister Hackett.

The OPIG scheme provides funding to processors who wish to invest in developing facilities for the processing, preparation, grading, packing and storage of organic products. This tranche of funding will remain open for applications until June 14.

The post Organic farming payments totaling over €6.8m to begin – Hackett appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Testing for infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) is not expected to feature in the new suckler scheme, according to the chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Livestock Committee.

Declan Hanrahan made the comments at a meeting on a farm in Quin, Co. Clare last night (Wednesday, May 29) as part of the association’s “Enough is Enough” campaign.

He said the new welfare scheme, which will replace the National Beef Welfare Scheme (NBWS), will have a budget of €20 million and will be funded through the Irish Exchequer.

IBR testing was among the two required actions for farmers who took part in the NBWS last year, along with meal feeding.

Hanrahan said that IFA was very much against the inclusion of IBR testing in the 2023 scheme as “the money was not staying with the farmer, it was leaking out to third parties”.

“You had to pay the lab, you had to pay the vet to do the test, so you actually had nothing out of it for yourself,” he said.

Suckler scheme

According to Hanrahan, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) proposal for the new suckler scheme is a €50/animal payment, up to 40 animals.

He said that this scheme payment will include two measures: €35/animal for meal feeding and €15/animal for vaccinating animals.

“The good thing about vaccination is it’s clostridial vaccination or respiratory vaccination so a lot of the farmers are doing it already,” he said.

Hanrahan said that the scheme is expected to be available for all suckler-bred calves born between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

He told the meeting that the department had also proposed a €400 payment for farmers to carry out a herd health plan, which the IFA said should be “an optional extra” so it “wouldn’t be taking money out of the pocket of farmers”.

The IFA Livestock chair said they are expecting an announcement from DAFM on the new scheme “fairly shortly”.

He added that the farm organisation will continue to seek an increase on the cap on animal numbers, particularly for farmers with suckler herds with 60-70 cows.

Beef prices

Hanrahan told the meeting that it has been a difficult spring for beef farmers which has been compounded by factories cutting prices.

“That was no need for the factories to do what they did in the last month cause they knew the farmers were under both financial pressure and weather pressure,” he said.

The IFA is predicting that there could be in the region of 70,000 less cattle in the system between now and the end of the year available to factories which should “drive on” prices.

Hanrahan urged farmers not to accept the first offer they receive from procurement managers, “because there’s more in the pot”.

“They’re not leaving any cattle behind them. We’ve seen the mart prices as well, the way they’re fighting for cattle,” he said.

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The satellite-based Area Monitoring System (AMS) will be used to check farmer compliance with the extensively-grazed pasture and winter bird food measures under the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The department already uses AMS to check that area-based schemes have met their eligibility requirements for 2024.

The system is based on regular and systematic observation, tracking and assessment of the agricultural activities on agricultural areas using the Copernicus Sentinal Satellite data.

In its latest circular issued to ACRES advisors, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said that, in 2024, AMS will be specifically used for the monitoring of two ACRES actions, namely extensively-grazed pasture and winter bird food.

The circular, issued yesterday (Wednesday, May 29), said that, for extensively-grazed pasture, AMS will check for any “mowing events” between the restricted period of March 15 to July 1.

For winter bird food, AMS will be used to check for any cultivation events that have take place before tomorrow (Friday, May 31).

The AMS system can be complemented with follow-up checks on the ground by an inspector to provide further clarification. Separately, the department may also send a notification request asking the applicant to submit “geotagged” photographs.

AMS interprets Sentinel satellite imagery, which enables the department to determine agricultural activities on declared land parcels in the country. Parcels monitored by AMS will have colour coded results: green; yellow; or red.

Parcels flagged by AMS as green and yellow indicate a degree of confidence that the land detail in the farmer’s BISS application has been verified and payments can be made.

However, a land parcel flagged by AMS as red indicates an error which may result in a notification being issued to the applicant on their BISS online account and a delay in payments.

An error could include an ineligible crop sown to meet the requirements of a particular scheme, an incorrect crop declared on BISS (different to what AMS has identified on the ground) or the presence of an ineligible feature such as a roadway or residence.

ACRES applications

The department also reminded advisors that any online amendments can be made to ACRES applications up to May 31 (tomorrow) without incurring a penalty.

Amendments may include rectifying incorrectly claimed land or adding a new parcel or plot.

Late amendments (after tomorrow) will be accepted online up to and including June 10 but will incur a penalty.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that finalisations for over 300 farmers still awaiting eco-scheme payments for 2023 will be completed by June 30 this year.

To date, eco-scheme payments have been issued to 119,165 farmers with a total value of €309 million paid.

This is following payments worth €345,952 issued to farmers last week.

The eco-scheme was introduced for the first time as part of Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

The payment rate depends on uptake, but is likely to be in the region of €60 to €65 for all eligible hectares covered by the commitments undertaken as part of the scheme.

Eco-scheme

At least 25% of the national direct payment budget must go towards the scheme.

This is mandatory for EU countries to include in their plans, but participation from farmers is voluntary and they have the opportunity to opt in or out on an annual basis.

According to the EU Commission, there was concern initially from agricultural ministers across the EU on the popularity of the scheme.

However, now that the scheme is in operation, it is actually oversubscribed across many member states, according to the commission.

This voluntary scheme, open to all active farmers, rewards actions that are beneficial to the climate, environment, water quality and biodiversity.

The aim of the scheme is to reward farmers, from all farming sectors and from different levels of intensity, for undertaking actions that are beneficial to the climate.

It supports practices such as organic farming, agro-ecological practices, precision farming, agro-forestry or carbon farming, as well as animal welfare improvements.

The post DAFM: Delayed eco-scheme payments will be issued by July appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now approved 56% of the applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

The latest data published by the department shows that 5,130 out of the total 9,110 applications were approved up to yesterday (Monday, May 27).

DAFM officials are still processing 3,368 applications, 406 have been rejected and 206 withdrawn by the applicant.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the ten TAMS 3 schemes:

Over the past week an additional 120 tranche 2 applications for the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) were approved.

This means that 1,843 out of 3,113 applications have now been cleared, 1,024 are “in progress”, while 190 have been rejected and 56 withdrawn.

DAFM granted 85 further applications out of the 2,200 made under the Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS). 1,243 applications have been approved for the scheme.

TAMS

The data shows that 355 applications made by farmers under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 are still being worked on by DAFM staff.

7,058 out of 8,203 tranche 1 applications have been approved since last December, 614 applications have been rejected and 176 withdrawn under this initial tranche.

The AWNSS is the scheme with the highest number of tranche 1 applications still “in progress” at 152, followed by the FSCIS on 65 and the Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) on 55.

Meanwhile, the department has told Agriland that “claims for payment in respect of approved investments under TAMS3 are currently being assessed”.

To date, a total of 941 claims for payment have been submitted under TAMS 3.

“It is anticipated that payments will start to issue in June,” a DAFM spokesperson added.

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European Parliament election candidate Barry Cowen has called for a “rebalancing” of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) towards food production.

Cowen, who is currently a TD for Laois-Offaly but is seeking an MEP seat in the Ireland Midlands – North-West constituency, also said that the CAP needs to see greater funding in order to bring about that rebalance.

Setting out his intentions on the CAP if he was elected, Cowen said: “We cannot keep asking more and more of farmers while paying them less and less, continuously going back to the CAP to fund everything.

“There needs to be greater understanding on the issues farmers are facing, and we need to make their lives easier and incentivise them.

“The best way to start is by simplifying things with less bureaucracy and red tape. Farmers were promised simplification in the last CAP, this has not been delivered,” he added.

According to the Fianna Fáil TD, farmers are being “weighed down by paperwork”.

Cowen also said that the current basis of CAP payments – i.e. income forgone and costs incurred – needs to be reviewed.

“We must replace the income forgone and costs incurred metric and instead introduce a reward-based scheme that rewards farmers for delivery.

“Currently, scheme payment rates only compensate farmers for their costs and time with no reward for delivery… We need to provide farmers with a payment that covers their costs, their time, and reward them for delivery,” he said.

Cowen also called for more “production-focused” schemes that would “bridge the income gap” for farmers that saw their income impacted by the current CAP.

“We also need a frontloading of funding and supports for sustainability and emission reduction schemes that are separate and distinct from CAP,” he said.

The MEP candidate added that the “disconnect between farmers and food producers cannot be allowed to continue”.

The European elections will happen on June 7, the same day as the local council elections.

Last week, Agriland ran a 24-hour poll to find out who the support is for among our readers.

The former general secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), Eddie Punch, has emerged as a strong favourite with rural voters according to the results of that poll.

First time candidates standing in the European elections including Michael McNamara and Nina Carberry also appear determined to give sitting MEPs a run for their money, poll results would suggest.

You can find out more about the results our poll threw up here.

The post Cowen calls for ‘rebalancing’ of CAP towards food production appeared first on Agriland.ie.

According to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, farmers are looking to receive “incentives” in order to achieve climate neutrality targets.

The European Union (EU) has a target of net zero emissions by 2050; and a 55% emissions reduction target by 2030, both compared to 1990 levels.

Climate neutrality by 2050 means achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions for EU countries as a whole, mainly by cutting emissions, investing in green technologies and protecting the natural environment.

During a ‘Eurovision Debate 2024’ yesterday (Thursday, May 24) in Brussels between the lead candidates for the Commission presidency, those vying for the role were questioned on climate change and the EU’s response to it.

The EU Green Deal, along with climate neutrality goals, and the implementation of new rules of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP)  were also discussed.

President von der Leyen said the EU has to implement climate neutrality by 2050, and that is why there are “dialogues with industry and with the farmers to ask them what is that [they] need to reach climate neutrality”.

“In the farmer’s dialogue for example, the answers are very clear from the farmers.

“They say ‘we want climate neutrality because we live off nature. We know that we want to get there, but…we want to move from conditionality to incentives‘,” President von der Leyen said of what farmers have been saying.

The other candidates for the Commission presidency at the debate were; Nicolas Schmit, Party European Socialists; Sandro Gozi, Renew Europe Now; Terry Reintke, European Greens; and Walter Baier, European Left.

Reintke, of the European Greens called for “a reform of the EU’s agricultural policy” at the debate.

The German MEP said a reform is needed “because we see that the farmers cannot live off what they are producing anymore.

“We need sustainability when it comes to climate, when it comes to the environment, but also when it comes to farmers incomes, and for that we need to change the way how we distribute subsidies in Europe,” she added.

As of tomorrow (Saturday, May 25), the targeted review of the CAP will apply to reduce the burden related to controls for EU farmers, thereby providing greater flexibility for complying with certain environmental rules.

Among the terms of the review, small farms under 10ha will be exempt from controls and penalties related to compliance with conditionality requirements.

Other changes include:

• Under GAEC 8 on non-productive features – EU farmers will have to maintain existing landscape features on their land but will no longer be obliged to dedicate a minimum part of their arable land to non-productive areas, such as fallow land;
• Under GAEC 7 on crop rotation – EU farmers will be able to fulfil this requirement by choosing to either rotate or diversify their crops, depending on the conditions they are facing and if their country decides to include the option of crop diversification in their CAP Strategic Plan;
• Under GAEC 6 on soil cover during sensitive periods – member states will have more flexibility in setting what they define as ‘sensitive periods’, and the practices allowed to fulfil this requirement, in light of their national and regional conditions, and in the context of increasing weather variability.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that Cork was the county with the highest number of applications for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes this year.

In total, 124,274 scheme applications were submitted from across the country by the deadline of Wednesday, May 15.

This figure includes 2,482 temporary reference number applications which are currently undergoing administrative checks by the department to determine eligibility.

BISS

The DAFM confirmed to Agriland that by the deadline it had received 12,344 applications on behalf of farmers in Co. Cork for BISS and other area-based schemes.

Galway was the county with the second-highest number of applications at 11,686, followed by Co. Mayo with 11,025.

The county with the lowest number of applications was Dublin with 605, followed by Louth with 1,459 and Carlow with 1,579.

The following table provides a county-by-county breakdown for the number of BISS and other area-based scheme applications made to DAFM by May 15:

Meanwhile, around 120,000 applications were submitted for Complementary Redistribution Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

This measure is designed to redistribute Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds from larger farms to medium and smaller sized farms.

The department received 120,461 applications from farmers wanting to participate in the Eco Scheme in 2024.

6,471 applications were made under the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF), 1,663 for Protein Aid and 979 for the National Reserve.

The department noted that the figures are subject to change as late applications are received, temporary reference numbers are resolved and other processing takes place to determine eligibility.

DAFM

Where farmers have made their BISS and other area based schemes application, but now wish to make an amendment, they may make such changes online at www.agfood.ie until midnight on Friday, May 31, without any penalty.

If a change made to a BISS online application leads to a farmer having insufficient land to use all of their entitlements, they will have the opportunity to submit a Transfer of Entitlements application up until midnight on May 31, 2024.

This is only available to farmers who can show that they have made a change to their BISS application by May 31, 2024 and that change has directly led to the need to transfer entitlements.

The department has reminded farmers that scheme applications will be accepted after the May 15 closing date, however a 1% per day penalty will be applied in these instances.

The deadline for the submission of late applications (with a penalty) is June 9, 2024.

DAFM has also said that it will begin to issue notifications to farmers as a result of satellite farm inspections from next month.

As part of the new CAP, the Area Monitoring System (AMS) is mandatory across all EU member states to monitor compliance with farm scheme criteria.

It uses satellite data, gathered automatically every five days, to observe and assess agricultural activities and practices.

The AMS also uses photographs containing GPS locations produced using the AgriSnap, developed by DAFM, to verify declared crops.

The post How many BISS applications were made in your county? appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that 17,167 farmers applied for the National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS) covering almost two million ewes.

The new scheme officially closed for applications at midnight on Tuesday (May 21).

The department said that there is a 25-calendar day period for the acceptance of late applications and any necessary supporting documentation.

However, deductions to payments at a rate of 1% per working day will apply to late applications which are received during this period.

This late applications period closes on June 15, 2024.

Sheep Welfare Scheme

The National Sheep Welfare Scheme complements the multi-annual Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS).

The scheme, which has a budget of €15 million in 2024, is funded under Ireland’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan.

It is aimed at assisting farmers to produce better quality animals and implement practical animal welfare measures on their farms.

Participants in the National Sheep Welfare Scheme are required to complete two actions to receive the full payment of up to €8/ewe.

There are four actions in the National Sheep Welfare Scheme and applicants must complete, in full, two actions, one from each category, as follows:

• Category A:
  • Shearing, or;
  • Body Condition Scoring Ewes and appropriate follow-on management;
• Category B:
  • Clostridial vaccination of ewes, or;
  • Plunge Dipping to control external parasites.

The scheme will run from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, and actions selected must be completed by the October 15, 2024.

The department reminded farmers that the two actions chosen when applying to join the scheme must be adhered to by the applicant.

INHFA

The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) previously said it had secured changes to two measures under the NSWS.

The farm organisation said that these changes relate to the plunge dipping measure and clostridial vaccine measure.

When the scheme was announced, the INHFA said that the date for completion of the dipping measures would prove difficult for hill sheep farmers.

The INHFA said that, after engagement with DAFM, farmers will be allowed avail of a later completion date for both those actions of November 25, 2024, but they must notify the department before September 15 that they wish to use the later date.

Where farmers do avail of the later completion date, their payment under the scheme will be delayed until the end of December or possibly early January 2025.

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President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has told a meeting of farmers in Sweden that “no farmer should be forced to sell products below cost”.

In a speech to the general assembly of the Federation of Swedish Farmers, the largest farm organisation in Sweden, President von der Leyen claimed that a new observatory of production costs, margins and trading practices in the agri-food supply chain, which was announced earlier this year, will help avoid this.

In her speech, delivered by video, the commission president said that “further measures will follow” to strengthen the negotiating power of farmers across the value chain.

“Day-in and day-out, farmers across Europe care for their land, to provide us with high-quality food. But you are facing a growing host of challenges.

These challenges, President von der Leyen said, include global market instability triggered by conflicts, volatile prices, and impacts of weather events.

“Not only do we hear your concerns about the future, we are taking actions, at the European level, to support you immediately, as well as in the mid and long-term,” she said.

These actions, the commission president said, include the recently approved simplifications to some aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

These include the exemption of farms under 10ha in size from controls and charges.

“Doing more for the environment is also a matter of trust. And we trust you,” President von der Leyen claimed.

She added: “We’ve heard your request to get a fair price for your products. I think, in our union, no farmer should be forced to sell products below cost. As a first step, we have launched an observatory to create more transparency on the food value chain. Further measures will follow, to strengthen the negotiating power of farmers across this value chain.”

“We have a clear and simple goal. Your hard work should pay off,” the commission president said.

However, she said that there was no “quick fix” for other issues.

“How can we encourage more young people into the profession? In Sweden, a new young farmer can already receive up to €32,000 in European funding to help set up their agricultural activity. Yet, we must do more to make farming an attractive career choice,” President von der Leyen said.

She added: “This starts by making it easier for this generation of farmers, and by giving a clear perspective to future generations of farmers. This is why I initiated a strategic dialogue on the the future of agriculture in the EU.”

This strategic dialogue, which the commission announced in January, will provide initial recommendations in the summer, which President von der Leyen said will “guide our efforts in the years to come”.

“As we continue this dialogue, you can count on Europe’s unwavering support. We are as committed to the land as we are to our farmers, and we want to see you thrive,” she added.

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Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has called for a “more even system” of Common Agricultural Payments (CAP) payments for farmers, after the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine provided the average payments per farmer for each county.

The figures, provided in response to a parliamentary question to Tóibín, show that, in 2022, Dublin was the county with the highest average payment per farmer, at €25,500, with each recipient sharing in €21 million in total payments.

Only five other counties had average payments for farmers in excess of €20,000 for 2022.

These were:

• Carlow (€21,000 per farmer, €39 million in total payments);
• Kilkenny (€21,000 per farmer, €69 million in total payments);
• Tipperary (€20,000 per farmer, €139 million in total payments);
• Waterford (€22,000 per farmer, €50 million in total payments);
• Wicklow (€21,500 per farmer, €44 million in total payments).

Commenting on the figures, Tóibín – who is running in the Midlands–North-West constituency for the European Parliament elections – said: “It’s hard to believe that even when it comes to average annual CAP payments, Dublin farmers are taking more than their fair share.

“Figures released to me…show that farmers in receipt of CAP in Dublin are getting an average annual payment of €25,500, the highest across all counties in the state,” he added.

“In Cavan, for example, the average annual payment comes in at €14,500. Mayo and Monaghan are both €12,500 respectively and, on average, a Donegal farmer is getting a mere €13,500.

“It’s not fair – the CAP payments should be focused on helping farmers in disadvantaged areas, especially those who farm on bad, rocky or wet land,” the Meath West TD said.

Tóibín referred to a decision by the European Commission, in 2022, to downgrade the north and west of Ireland to a “lagging” region, based on gross domestic product (GDP) and poverty rates in the area.

“Surely this means that, regardless of farm size, the farmers there deserve preferential treatment to help pull them from the bog hole of debt and poverty they’re currently stuck in,” the Aontú leader claimed.

“I’ll be raising this matter in the Dáil as soon as possible. We all know that the current government and indeed the European Commission have little regard for rural Ireland, and it appears to many that Dublin is getting everything while rural areas are left behind.”

“However, I was shocked to see that even when it comes to farming and CAP payments, Dublin is getting the cream and rural counties are getting the scraps. It’s unforgiveable,” Tóibín said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has approved over half of the applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

The latest statistics from the department show that 4,831 (53%) out of the total 9,110 applications have been given the green light.

A further 3,679 applications are still being considered by officials, while 394 have been rejected and 206 were withdrawn.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the ten TAMS 3 schemes:

Since May 13, the department has approved an additional 230 applications made under the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS).

1,721 out of 3,113 applications for the scheme have been approved, 185 applications have been rejected and 56 withdrawn.

DAFM also cleared a further 122 applications under the Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS). 1,158 out of 2,200 applications have now received approval.

457 Organic Capital Investment Scheme (OCIS) applications were approved in that period, along with 42 Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) applications.

TAMS

Meanwhile, the latest data published by the DAFM also shows that 386 applications made under tranche 1 of TAMS 3 are still “in progress”.

The department has approved 7,032 (85%) of the 8,203 applications submitted for the initial round of TAMS 3.

Of the outstanding tranche 1 applications, 162 relate to the AWNSS, 73 to the FSCIS and 57 to the SCIS.

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The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that clarity is urgently needed for farmers in co-operation project (CP) areas under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The chair of the association’s National Hill Farming Committee, Caillin Conneely has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to “come clean” with farmers on land parcel scoring and Non-Productive Investment (NPI) applications.

He also urged the department to ensure balancing ACRES payments are issued to all farmers “as soon as possible”.

“Farmers in co-operation areas were sold a pup with ACRES. We were promised up to €10,500 each year for the five years of the scheme, but we got nothing at all in year one, and even now, haven’t a clue how much, or when we will get paid this year.

“We are in the dark completely on how our lands scored and where we stand with our NPI applications. It’s just not acceptable. Farmers can’t continually be at a loss because the Department haven’t their ducks in a row,” he said.

In February, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue announced an interim payment for ACRES tranche 1 participants who had not yet received their advance payments.

The first interim payment run of €4,000 for ACRES General participants and €5,000 for ACRES CP participants was paid at the end of that month.

ACRES

The IFA Hill Farming chair said that applications for NPIs closed in early December 2023, “but it’s been radio silence ever since”.

“We are hearing it could be late summer now before any NPI approvals start to issue, to allow farmers start the work, nevermind get paid for it.

“We need a complete rethink here. I’m calling on the minister to ensure innovative solutions are found and whatever resources necessary is provided to speed up this process, and to allow farmers start works and get paid in good time.

“The NPI gave farmers a chance to build up payments where scoring may not have been as high as anticipated, but again we haven’t a clue where we stand here either. We have no idea how our parcels scored,” Conneely said.

DAFM has reminded farmers in ACRES tranche 1 who are seeking to rescore their land this year to select this option through their Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) Scheme application.

“What I do might be very different if I know my land scored a 7 versus what I think scored a 7 but actually only scored a 2 or 3 on the department end.

“I simply need to know where I stand before I can make any kind of informed decision. Farmers need and deserve better clarity. We are shooting in the dark otherwise,” Conneely said.

“This year already has been very challenging on hill farmers, with huge extra expense.

“Cashflow pressures are building on many farms. We need clarity and certainty where we stand so we can plan going forward,” he said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued over €1.6 million in outstanding scheme payments this week.

Some €400,000 was paid out under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

The figures published today (Friday, May 17) show that 120,101 farmers have now received BISS and CRISS payments totalling €830 million.

This includes the 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers payments (€32.8million), as well as the 2023 National Reserve (€4.5 million) payments.

DAFM

The data shows €565,735 was paid out to farmers under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

Almost 37,000 TAMS payments have now been issued by the department to date.

Department official cleared a further €169,000 in payments for farmers participating in the 2023 Eco Scheme over the past week.

120,000 farmers have now received almost €309 million under the scheme which was introduced in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

An additional €150,000 has been issued to participants in the National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme 2023.

Over €5 million has been issued to 8,400 farmers under the measure to date.

An additional €84,000 was paid out for the 2022 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC).

There was also a further €93,456 issued for farmers in the 2023 Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) this week.

The department paid out €122,000 through the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) 2023, along with almost €28,000 for the Protein Aid Scheme 2023.

BISS

Earlier today, DAFM confirmed that 124,274 farmers applied online for the BISS and other area-based schemes this year.

The deadline for farmers or their advisors to submit applications for these schemes in 2024 fell on Wednesday (May 15).

Around 120,000 farmers made applications for BISS which replaced the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A similar number of farmers applied for CRISS, which is designed to redistribute CAP funds from larger farms to medium and smaller sized farms.

The department advised farmers that scheme applications will be accepted after the May 15 closing date, however a 1% per day penalty will be applied in these instances.

Where farmers have made their BISS and other area based schemes application, but now wish to make an amendment, they may make such changes online at www.agfood.ie until midnight on Friday, May 31, without any penalty.

The post DAFM issues almost €600,000 in TAMS payments appeared first on Agriland.ie.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that 124,274 farmers applied online for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes.

The deadline for farmers or their advisors to submit applications for these schemes in 2024 fell on Wednesday (May 15).

Around 120,000 farmers made applications for BISS which replaces the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A similar number of farmers applied for Complementary Redistribution Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), which is designed to redistribute CAP funds from larger farms to medium and smaller sized farms.

Schemes

The department said that it received 120,461 applications from farmers wanting to participate in the Eco Scheme in 2024.

There were some 116,892 applications made for the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC).

Farmers made applications under the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF), Protein Aid, Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), Multi Species Sward Measure (MSSM) and Red Clover Silage Measure (RCSM).

Annual claims for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) were also submitted.

The figures include 2,437 Temporary Reference Number applications, applications where no BISS entitlements are held and applications without any claimed area.

The department noted that these applications will be subject to administrative checks to determine eligibility.

It added that the scheme application numbers are subject to change as processing of entitlement trades are completed in the coming months.

Separately, there were 13,155 applications submitted for the CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme before the May 15 deadline.

The new scheme is one of the measures in the ten-point action plan on supporting dairy calf to beef systems in Ireland.

DAFM

In recent months, almost 1,400 farmers attended 17 in-person clinics organised by DAFM across the country to support them in lodging their scheme applications.

A further 365 farmers were offered direct help at the department’s public office in Portlaoise.

The DAFM Direct Payments Helpdesk made and received over 10,000 calls to farmers since April 2 to help them with their applications and queries.

The department advised farmers that scheme applications will be accepted after the May 15 closing date, however a 1% per day penalty will be applied in these instances.

Where farmers have made their BISS and other area based schemes application, but now wish to make an amendment, they may make such changes online at www.agfood.ie until midnight on Friday, May 31, without any penalty.

Entitlements

Meanwhile, the department also confirmed that there were 33,342 applications received to transfer payment entitlements by the closing date of May 15.

If a change made to a BISS online application leads to a farmer having insufficient land to use all of their entitlements, they will have the opportunity to submit a Transfer of Entitlements application up until midnight on May 31, 2024.

DAFM said that this is only available to farmers who can show that they have made a change to their BISS application by May 31, 2024 and that change has directly led to the need to transfer entitlements.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is reminding farmers in tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) about the necessary requirements for rescoring land.

As part of this year’s Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) Scheme application, farmers or their advisors were offered the option to have lands on which there are results based actions under ACRES that were scored in 2023, rescored in 2024.

If a farmer wished to avail of this option for Year 2, they must tick the relevant box on their BISS application to confirm to the department that they want to rescore parcels with results based actions.

The closing date for BISS applications to be submitted to the department fell yesterday (Wednesday, May 15).

ACRES

Once a decision had been made on this issue and the relevant box ticked, the only way that an advisor or their client can now change their mind (in relation to the option to rescore or not) is to note this in an amended BISS application by May 31, 2024.

In a circular issued to advisors today (Thursday, May 16), the department noted that an email to its ACRES section to indicate a change of mind will not suffice.

“The change of mind has to be indicated by a BISS amendment only,” DAFM said.

The scoring of lands, other than commonage, on which results based actions are located was scheduled to be done in years 1, 3 and 5 of the ACRES contract, with all relevant lands under tranche 1 contracts accordingly scored in 2023.

To help alleviate the workload for ACRES advisors during the busy summer period, the department decided to allow farmers to choose to have all of their non-commonage lands rescored in years 2 and 4 or in years 3 and 5.

In the event that a farmer in ACRES tranche 1 decides to rescore this year, it is mandatory that all parcels are scored by their advisor in year 2.

All scorecards must then be submitted to the department by the deadline of August 31, 2024.

“If all scorecards are not submitted by the set deadline, it may result in non-payment, penalties and recoupment of monies already paid.

“The scorecards submitted in year 2 will then inform the year 2 claim for payment,” the department said.

If a participant chooses not to rescore in year 2, they must tick the “No, don’t rescore”
option through their BISS application.

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The deadline to apply for the new National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS) is fast approaching.

Applications for the scheme must be submitted by the closing date of 11:59p.m on Tuesday, May 21.

There is a 25-calendar day period after the May 21 closing date for the acceptance of late applications and any necessary supporting documentation.

However, deductions to payments at a rate of 1% per working day in respect of the NSWS will apply to late applications which are received during this period.

This late applications period closes on June 15, 2024.

Selecting your scheme actions:

All applicants must select one action from the list of category A actions and one action from the list of category B actions.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that the payment will be per eligible breeding ewe, and payment for full scheme compliance will be €8/ewe (€4/ewe/action completed).

Applicants are asked to choose their actions carefully, as once their application has been submitted, it will not be possible to change their actions over the lifetime of the scheme.

Sheep Welfare Scheme participation

The NSWS measures are additional to those in the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) and must be applied for separately.

To qualify for participation in the scheme:

• You must have an ovine active DAFM herd number;
• You must be farming a holding in respect of which a valid 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application is submitted to the department, within the required application period;
• You must have breeding ewes recorded on the national sheep census in 2023;
• There are four actions in the scheme and applicants must complete in full two actions, one from each category. Completion of both actions are mandatory for payment.

Applicants who have not submitted a 2023 sheep census return by the February 14, 2024 deadline will not be eligible to apply for the scheme.

The scheme will run from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, however actions selected must be completed by October 15, 2024.

Reductions in payment will apply where not all actions are completed.

The post Closing date for Sheep Welfare Scheme applications approaches appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Over €1.4m in outstanding scheme payments were issued to farmers this week by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

This includes additional payments of €0.75 million under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

Under the schemes up until Friday, May 10, 120,174 farmers have been paid a total of €830.89 million.

This figure includes 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (€32.5 million) and 2023 National Reserve (€4.4 million).

New payments

A further €80,750.32 was paid out under the 2022 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC).

Total payments now stand at €249.2 million, with 99,468 farmers paid.

Another €0.022 million was paid out under the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

An extra €38,120.89 was paid out this week under the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).

€39.5 million has now been paid out under the 2023 OFS, with 3,852 farmers having received payments.

TAMS

A total of €534,133 was paid out this week under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

There has been 56,675 approvals issued to date under TAMS.

Separately, this week DAFM confirmed that it has approved 3,735 (41%) applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the new TAMS.

According to the latest statistics provided by the department, 4,792 out of a total 9,110 applications were deemed “in progress” up to Tuesday (May 7).

The data shows that 380 tranche 2 applications have been refused to date, while 193 have been withdrawn.

The closing date for applications to be submitted to the department under tranche 2 was extended to January 19 last.

TAMS tranche 4, which is currently open, will close for applications on Friday, September 6, and tranche 5 will close on Friday, December, 6 2024.

There were no further updates for scheme payments this week.

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An agreement between farm organisations and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the new Farmers’ Charter is edging closer, Agriland understands.

The Farmers’ Charter is a set of guidelines outlining how the department interacts with farmers on a number of issues, including scheme payments and farm inspections.

Negotiations on a new charter, to coincide with the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), have been ongoing for over a year, and now it appears that a final agreement could be secured within a month, it is understood.

Speaking after a meeting between farm organisation representatives and department officials to outline the final details of the charter, the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) Connacht regional chairperson said that progress was being made, but there were some issues that remained to be ironed out.

Brendan Golden said: “Progress has been made on a number of issues over the last number of months. Farm payments will return to their traditional payment schedule for 2024, with ANC (Areas of Natural Constraint) Scheme [payments] reverting to the third week of September.”

When, in early 2023, the department announced that some scheme payments would occur later than usual for that year, the IFA responded by ceasing their attendance at the Farmers’ Charter meetings for much of the year.

The department said updating its computer systems to cater for new schemes under the current CAP was the cause of the delays.

Golden said: “The department must assess and review the capabilities of its IT (information technology) infrastructure prior to scheme roll-out, to avoid subsequent payment or processing delays.

The IFA representative called for the department to make provisions for an alternative payment when agreed payment dates are not met.

Golden also said that the new charter will include improvements around inspection notifications, and will retain the written preliminary inspection report issued on the day of the inspection, rather than in the subsequent days, which the department had been proposing.

He also said that inspections will be, in the main, announced.

However, according to Golden, the department has other outstanding issues to resolve “in order to ensure fairness and equity for farmers”.

“We cannot have a situation where the department revises or changes the terms and conditions following the opening of the scheme, which leaves applicants negatively impacted by the change. This is a basic principle that must be included in the charter.

“Engagement with farm organisations prior to any amendments or revisions is the minimum commitment required in the charter,” Golden added.

Other issues that have been raised for inclusion in the new charter include timeframes for department responses to reviews and appeals, recognition of pregnancy status of cows at inspection, and monitoring the implementation of the charter itself.

“The charter, when finalised, must have a meaningful and positive impact for farmers across the delivery of direct payments, farm schemes and department services. It is vital to secure a new charter that is fit for purpose and serves farmers well in a practical and real way over the next number of years in their interaction with the department,” Golden said.

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Inflation in the cost of concrete, and the additional cost from the Defective Concrete Product Levy, are pushing costings under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) “into fantasy land”.

That’s according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), which said that some farmers are “no longer even considering TAMS” due to the costings.

Pat O’Brien, the association’s Farm Business Committee chairperson, said: “TAMS costings, [which have been] obsolete and demonstrably out of step with real costs for the last five years, are now being pushed on by concrete inflation and the mica levy into a fantasy land that has them completely detached from any semblance of reality.

“TAMS costings were drifting into unreality but it must be obvious to everyone by now that the grant paid on TAMS is way off the 40% level for farmers and the 60% for young farmers.”

O’Brien called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to “immediately initiate a review” of TAMS references costs, to be competed by August 1, that address the inflation in costs.

“That must result in increased reference costings and those must be applied to existing projects under construction. It’s just unacceptable and misleading to be telling farmers that they are getting a 40% or 60% grant when the reality is completely different,” O’Brien added.

The ICMSA representative also called on the minister to publish the methodology used in reviewing the reference costs, and itemise specific costings used for specific items, such as a cubic metre of concrete.

“The minister should publish the price used so farmers can judge themselves whether the real costs of construction are being taken into account when setting the TAMS reference costs,” O’Brien said.

He said that Minister McConalogue should work to “move the much-criticised scheme onto a consistent and formalised basis that address specific reference costs in a meaningful and realistic way”.

TAMS approvals

In other TAMS news, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has approved 3,735 (41%) applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the scheme.

According to the latest statistics provided by the department, 4,792 out of a total 9,110 applications were deemed “in progress” up to Tuesday (May 7).

The data shows that 380 tranche 2 applications have been refused to date, while 193 have been withdrawn. Tranche 2 closed for applications on January 19.

Tranche 3, which closed for applications last month, saw 3,802 applications lodged. Tranche 4, which is currently open, will close for applications on September 6, while tranche 5 will close on December 6.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has informed farmer advisors of some updates to the terms and conditions of tranche 2 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The changes come into effect from today (Thursday, May 9), and ACRES advisors have been informed through the issuing of a circular.

There are changes to the terms and conditions surrounding parcels on which general actions, – other than barn owl boxes – may be located; amendments to the sharing and exchange of personal data; and amendments regarding corrections to dates for soil sampling and the late submission of scorecards.

Amendment to section 8 on the application procedure

This amendment is regarding clarification about parcels on which general actions, other than barn owl boxes may be located.

Amended text:

• 8.13 Except for barn owl boxes, the parcel selected on which a general action or results-based action is to be delivered must have an eligible hectare greater than zero in 2023.

Amendment to section 33 on information and data protection

This amendment is the addition of a sentence in the second paragraph of ‘Section 33.3 Recipients’ (new sentence below).

• S.I. No. 628/2023 – European Union (Cap Strategic Plan, Information Sharing) Regulations 2023, enables the sharing and exchange of personal data, with other public authorities, where it is necessary for the achievement of the CSP.

Amendment to Annex 5 on the ACRES penalty schedule

In respect of soil sampling documentation, the correction of the deadline for submission now reads May 15, 2025.

In respect of the late submission of scorecards, there is a correction of reference year, which should have read ‘2023 BISS’ (Basic Income Support Scheme).

Further to this, there was clarification that penalties in respect of stated non-compliances in relation to ‘Scorecards for CP parcels declared as owned on a participant’s 2023 BISS’ will apply to ‘non-commonage’ results-based payments.

ACRES reminder

Following the issue of approvals under tranche 2 in respect of the ACRES Co-operation approach, this ACRES circular issued a reminder of the following, as outlined in the ACRES specification for tranche 2, in relation to results-based scorecards.

In 2024, once applicants for the ACRES Co-operation approach have been approved as ACRES Co-operation (CP) participants in the scheme, the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) team in each Co-operation area/zone will assess the CP LPIS parcels for each ACRES CP participant in their respective zones.

The CP team will delineate all forage CP parcels (crop codes LIPP, THM and Permanent pasture) that have an eligible hectare of greater than zero within the CP zone, into Fields.

They will also identify the appropriate results-based scorecards that will be used by the advisor to score those fields.

All results-based scorecards must be submitted by an approved ACRES advisor by the deadline date assigned by the DAFM in year 1 of the ACRES contract and any subsequent years that scorecards must be submitted.

It is mandatory for a scorecard to be submitted in year 1 for each owned forage CP land parcel/field that was declared on the participant’s 2023 BISS application and is still declared on the 2024 BISS application.

If an ACRES Co-operation participant wishes to include, for scoring and payment under their ACRES contract, any CP forage parcel that was declared as rented or leased on their 2023 BISS application, a scorecard must also be submitted for these parcels/fields by the assigned date in year 1 (2024) and the parcel must be claimed on the 2024 BISS application.

Any parcels/fields scored in year 1 of an ACRES Contract must also be scored in years 3 and 5 or, alternatively, in years 2 and 4 of the ACRES contract.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has approved 3,735 (41%) applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

According to the latest statistics provided by the department, 4,792 out of a total 9,110 applications were deemed “in progress” up to Tuesday (May 7).

The data shows that 380 tranche 2 applications have been refused to date, while 193 have been withdrawn.

The closing date for applications to be submitted to the department under tranche 2 was extended to January 19 last.

The following table provides a breakdown of the current status of tranche 2 applications under the 10 TAMS 3 schemes:

The Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme was the most popular TAMS scheme in tranche 2 with 3,113 applications.

The department has approved 1,310 applications,1,565 are in progress, 182 were rejected and 56 withdrawn.

942 out of the 2,200 Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme applications made under tranche 2 have been approved.

TAMS

Meanwhile, DAFM has also published the latest data for applications made by farmers under tranche 1 of TAMS.

6,935 (85%) of the 8,230 applications have been cleared by department officials, while 471 applications are still under consideration.

593 tranche 1 applications have been rejected and 204 were withdrawn.

The Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme, which was the scheme with the highest number of tranche 1 applications, still has 200 applications “in progress”.

The department began issued approvals for tranche 1 back in December and has been gradually making its way through applications since.

Separately, 3,802 applications were lodged by last month’s deadline for TAMS tranche 3.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed that all eligible applications will be approved by his department.

TAMS tranche 4, which is currently open, will close for applications on Friday, September 6, and tranche 5 will close on Friday, December, 6 2024.

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The decision of Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to provide some in-person training sessions for participants in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) has been welcomed by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA).

The farm organisation said that the minister’s move will “come as a great relief to many farmers who face considerable challenges with the online training for a variety of reasons”.

Earlier, Minister McConalogue confirmed that a number of in-person training events for SCEP farmers will be held later this summer.

At the end of April, the minister confirmed that online training courses would take place. However, concerns were raised that some farmers, especially those in an older age cohort and those with poor internet connections, would struggle to complete that online training.

While saying that the online option has “significant advantages” for SCEP participants, the minister acknowledged that, for some farmers, online access could be problematic.

He said: “I do not want any farmer disenfranchised in relation to this important training.”

ICSA suckler chairperson Jimmy Cosgrave said he was “pleased” that the minister “has seen the merit in our argument”.

Cosgrave said that, while the option to complete the training online will suit many participants, it is “vital to include an in-person option to ensure no farmer gets left behind”.

“A lot of our suckler farmers are older and living in remote areas and would have really struggled with completing the seven required modules.

“Now, at least, they will have the opportunity to meet with other farmers and complete the training in an environment where they will have all the necessary support,” Cosgrave added.

The ICSA suckler chair said: “The SCEP scheme is an important one in terms of reaching our climate targets and in terms of financially supporting suckler farmers.

“The goal is to get as many farmers as possible through the scheme to secure those benefits and I am pleased common sense has prevailed on this issue,” he commented.

Farmers must have the training completed by November 15, 2024, to avoid removal from SCEP and loss of any payments already received. Further details of the in-person training events will be published in due course, Minister McConalogue’s department said.

According to Minister McConalogue, the online option allows farmers, whether full-time or part-time, to undertake the training at a date and time that best suits them rather than having to attend a specific location on a specific day.

The online training is split into seven modules and a farmer can stop and start the training as necessary, once it is completed in full by November 15, 2024.

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The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has outlined recommendations which it said the European Commission should take to speed up the recovery of ‘misspent’ agricultural funds from member states.

The auditors found that, while the commission ensures that irregular expenditure is recorded accurately and promptly, getting this money back often takes too long.

For jointly managed agricultural funds where member states have primary responsibility, recovery rates are generally low, but with significant differences between EU countries.

From 2014-2022, €14 billion of such irregular EU expenditure (misspent funds) was reported in all areas.

Recovering it is a key element of the European Union’s financial integrity and internal control system.

Recovery of misspent funds

‘Recovering’ EU funds means requesting the refund of some or all of the amounts paid to an implementing organisation or beneficiary that was subsequently deemed not to have adhered to EU funding requirements.

However, once that money has been paid out, it is often a lengthy process to get it back, if at all, according to the EU auditors.

They noted that it typically takes 14-23 months from the end of the funded activities until a repayment request is even issued, and a further 3-5 months before the funds are retrieved, with 1-8% of them simply being waived.

The ECA member responsible for the audit, Jorg Kristijan Petrovic said: “No effort should be spared to recover misspent EU money without delay.

“The EU owes this to taxpayers, and any failure to recover money would be detrimental to EU citizens’ trust.”

According to the European Court of Auditors’ 2022 Annual Report, between 2021 and 2022 the rate of misspending rose from 3% to 4.2% of the budget, making the effective recovery of funds an increasingly pressing issue.

However, since just 20% of the budget is directly managed by the European Commission, eliminating error and recovering those funds can be difficult, the auditors said.

They found that the main issues with recovering funds under direct and indirect management lie in the long delay between a financial irregularity being identified and a recovery order being issued.

They also found that there is incomplete information in external actions about the impact of some irregular expenditure.

To improve the timeliness of recoveries, the auditors recommended reducing not only the time it takes to establish irregular expenditure, but also the time it takes to then launch recovery proceedings.

To do so, they suggested improving the planning of audit work and examining the financial impact of systematic irregular expenditure.

They also suggested that incentives that were present in the previous funding cycle should be reintroduced in order for member states to recover funds in agriculture.

In the previous cycle, member states had to repay half of the funds that they had not recovered within 4-8 years to the EU budget.

The auditors further recommended that the commission should provide accurate and complete annual data on what spending had been found to be irregular, and what measures were taken to correct it, so that the process can be refined in the future.

EU budget

The EU budget is not all directly disbursed by the European Commission. Around 70% is jointly managed with member states, 20% is directly managed, and 10% is indirectly managed through other international organisations or third countries.

As regards direct and indirect management, the commission is responsible for identifying and recording irregular expenditure, and then recovering the funds.

When EU funds are not spent in accordance with the rules, they are considered to be irregular expenditure, accounting for 4.2% of the budget in 2022.

Some or all of this money may then be eligible for recovery either directly by the commission, or by the member state or body that was responsible for the funds in the first place.

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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has confirmed that a number of in-person training events under the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) will be held later this summer.

At the end of April, the minister confirmed that online training courses would take place. However, concerns were raised that some farmers, especially those in an older age cohort and those with poor internet connections, would struggle to complete that online training.

While saying that the online option has “significant advantages” for SCEP participants, the minister acknowledged that, for some farmers, online access could be problematic.

He said: “I do not want any farmer disenfranchised in relation to this important training.

“I recognise that there are some SCEP participants who may not have internet connectivity or the support to access [training] and therefore I am confirming that my department will hold a number of in-person SCEP training events later in the summer.

“While I am providing an in-person option, the expectation is that online training will be preferential for the majority of participants given it will be available 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week,” the minister added.

According to Minister McConalogue, the online option allows farmers, whether full-time or part-time, to undertake the training at a date and time that best suits them rather than having to attend a specific location on a specific day.

The online training is split into seven modules and a farmer can stop and start the training as necessary, once it is completed in full by November 15, 2024.

The minister said that the department will be monitoring the uptake of the SCEP training regularly and will issue “targeted communication as required to participants to help them complete the training”.

Farmers must have the training completed by November 15, 2024, to avoid removal from SCEP and loss of any payments already received. Further details of the in-person training events will be published in due course, the department said.

The online training is available to access at a dedicated website called www.sceptraining.ie. Each module should take, on average, around 30 minutes to complete. Participants can do all the modules at once or complete them in stages.

It is possible to partially complete a module and pick up where you left off the next time you log in. However, all modules must be completed in full by November 15 to be deemed compliant with the training requirement.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now received over 83,000 applications for area-based schemes, including the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme.

The department has confirmed to Agriland that 83,096 applications had been submitted as of Monday, May 6.

This means that an additional 19,000 applications were lodged with the department over the previous seven days.

DAFM previously confirmed that 63,962 applications had been made by Monday, April 29.

The latest update comes as farmers or their agricultural advisor now have just over one week to submit applications as the closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15.

Last year, over 124,000 BISS applications were lodged with the department. Based on this figure it means that around 40,000 farmers are yet to submit their scheme application for 2024.

Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) was replaced by BISS.

BISS applications

The online application system for all elements of direct payments (BISS, Eco-Schemes, Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, Protein Aid, National Reserve, transferring of entitlements) is currently open for farmers.

DAFM has said that annual payment claims for the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) can also be made online.

The maximum payment that will be granted to any one farmer under the BISS, in any one scheme year is capped at an effective rate of €66,000.

The department said that no payment will be made where the amount is less than €100.

DAFM has said that an advance BISS payment may be made in October, while balancing payments under the scheme commence in December.

The department is operating the following helplines to assist farmers in making their BISS applications online:

• 049 4368288 in relation to queries on registering for www.agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register etc;
• 057 8674422 in relation to queries on completing the BISS application once registered on www.agfood.ie or to request a paper copy of the terms and conditions.

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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that the Climate Resilient Reforestation Pilot Scheme will open for applications shortly.

The proposed pilot scheme aims to provide supports at reforestation that incentivise species and structural diversity.

According to the minister this can result in an increase in the resilience and adaptiveness of the forest land to climate related threats.

The pilot scheme is part of the government’s Forestry Programme 2023 – 2027 which was approved last September.

Reforestation scheme

Minister McConalogue said that many forests in Ireland have been established and managed under “an even-aged management structure”.

“There is a need for a greater balance between these and forests managed under closer to nature silviculture, such as continuous cover forestry and semi-natural forest,” he said.

He explained that this intervention would be delivered through a reforestation scheme with three elements:

• Reforestation for continuous cover forestry;
• Reforestation for native woodlands;
• Reforestation for biodiversity and water protection.

In response to a parliamentary question from Independent Tipperary TD Michael Lowry, Minister McConalogue said that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is currently developing an online application system for the scheme.

“It is our intention to launch it in the coming weeks,” he said.

“All elements will be subject to my department’s forestry standards, including the accepted species, origin and provenance list.

“Grant funding will be available and can be used for measures that ensure successful re-establishment, such as planting, plant protection (e.g. fencing) and maintenance,” the minister added.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued over €2.8 million in outstanding scheme payments to farmers over the past two weeks.

The latest data published today (Friday, May 3) by the department shows that €1.15 million was paid out under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

120,101 farmers have now received BISS and CRISS payments totalling €830 million.

The department noted that this figure includes 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (€32.3 million) and 2023 National Reserve (€4.4 million).

Scheme payments

The data shows that an additional €339,000 was paid by the department to farmers who are in the Eco-Scheme as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

DAFM said that some 120,370 farmers have now been allocated a total of €308 million under the scheme

€416,820 was also paid out last week under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

The department paid out over €220,000 to farmers under the Sheep Improvement Scheme 2023.

An additional €196,000 was paid out last week to farmers for outstanding payments under the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

Officials also cleared an additional €139,000 for payment to farmers in the Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS) 2023

While €150,000 was issued to participants in the National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme 2023. Some €5.3 million has now been paid out to 8,402 farmers under this scheme.

€155,000 was paid to farmers under the 2022 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC) schemes.

An additional €24,700 was allocated to farmers under last year’s Fodder Support Scheme.

Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) payments worth €8,115 were issued over the past fortnight. To date, 3,848 farmers have received their 2023 OFS payment totalling €39.4 million.

Deadline

Earlier this week, the department confirmed that it has now received almost 64,000 applications for 2024 area-based schemes, including BISS.

Farmers or their advisors now have less than two weeks to submit applications as the closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15.

Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) was replaced by BISS.

Last year, over 124,000 BISS applications were lodged with the department. Based on this figure it means that around half of farmers are yet to submit their scheme application for 2024.

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The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) has said it has secured changes to two measures under the National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS).

These changes relate to the plunge dipping measure and clostridial vaccine measure, the farm organisation said.

When the scheme was announced, the farm organisation said that the date for completion of the dipping measures would prove difficult for farmers.

INHFA vice-president Michael McDonnell said that the October 15 deadline is “problematic for many hill flocks where sheep would still be on the hills and in many cases would not be down until November”.

That same date – by which all scheme actions have to be completed – would also be difficult to meet for farmers choosing to vaccinate ewes under the clostridial vaccination measure, according to McDonnell.

The INHFA said that, after engagement with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, farmers will be allowed avail of a later completion date for both those actions of November 25, 2024, but they must notify the department before September 15 that they wish to use the later date.

However, where farmers do avail of the later completion date, their payment under the scheme will be delayed until the end of December or possibly early January 2025.

There are four actions in the National Sheep Welfare Scheme and applicants must complete, in full, two actions, one from each category, as follows:

• Category A:
  • Shearing, or;
  • Body Condition Scoring Ewes and appropriate follow-on management;
• Category B:
  • Clostridial vaccination of ewes, or;
  • Plunge Dipping to control external parasites.

The scheme has a budget of €15 million.

McDonnell called on the department to utilise that funding in full.

“[We] are pushing the department for guarantees that the full €15 million allocated in the budget will be spent on the scheme,” he said.

“In the unlikely event that farmer uptake doesn’t match the budget then unspent funds must be paid out to existing participants as a top-up on each ewe,” McDonnel added.

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Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) president, Michael Ryan has said that consequences for spreading fertiliser are “greater” this year, with all sales now being recorded on the National Fertiliser Database.

The database has been running since September 2023 and makes it is an offence to sell or purchase fertiliser without being registered.

“The department now have the information on purchases by farmers, and are obviously in a better position to see who has and has not purchased.

“It can see what was marginal, which increases the risk for targeted inspections” Ryan said.

The ACA has been in touch with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to update its penalty schedule.

At the moment, penalties under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme would typically be up to around 3% in a first case scenario, according to Ryan.

Penalties could be multiplied to potentially 15% if the incident re-occurs.

Ryan added that farmers could risk losing the derogation or 100% of the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) if phosphorus limits were exceeded.

Fertiliser advice

Ryan said that farmers should have up to date soil analysis to “effectively prove that they require phosphorus”.

“Particularly if farms are stocked at over 130kg of organic nitrogen in 2023,” Ryan said.

“For farmers stocked under that, they are allowed to assume index three, but the allowances are actually quite small.

“Yet, we have a cohort of farmers who every year spread the same amount of fertiliser, irrespective of whether or not they have a soil test result,” he added.

He advised that if farmers do not already have soil samples taken, then they should put out straight nitrogen until results have been acquired.

Ryan reminded all farmers that while awaiting results, slurry can not be spread.

If farmers are unsure on how to receive results, Ryan recommended contacting an advisor for support.

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The recent progression in transitioning farm support measures in Northern Ireland has been broadly welcomed by Tom Elliot MLA.

In this context, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) agriculture spokesman has specifically highlighted the steps taken by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) on taking forward the transition of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements into Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) entitlements.

This constitutes part of the launch of the Farm Sustainability Transition Payment (FSTP) in 2025.

Elliott also highlighted the importance of these developments in bringing stability to Northern Ireland’s agricultural sector.

He said: “The FSP will be the biggest shake-up in agriculture policy for some time and invokes the new direction of agriculture policy outside the EU and a move away from the Common Agriculture Policy norms.

“The clarification from the department of how it plans to implement this new regime will raise many questions in the forthcoming days, as farmers seek stability to facilitate them with forward planning.

“However, this is not the finalised binding product – it may yet change, as it only reflects the policy decisions outlined to date by Minister Poots.

“It is still yet unclear if the current minster will bring forward further changes, or indeed if he has the right to deviate from decisions already taken by the previous minister.”

According to Elliott, there are still concerns surrounding the eligibility for this scheme that, he believes, will need greater scrutiny from the Stormont Assembly.

Farm support measures

Elliot continued: “A requirement of five hectares of eligible land to qualify will have a detrimental impact on many of our smaller farmers, who are already feeling the pinch from economic and environmental pressures.

“The farming and agri-food sector are like no other industries, they face acute pressures that are beyond the control of the individual farmers themselves, they face constant fluctuations in pricing and for some a stagnation in earnings persisting for years.

“Farmers deserve a fair deal that works for all.”

The UUP representative was responding to a recent statement from DAERA within which a number of fundamental announcements, with regard to the out working of future farm support measures in Northern Ireland.

Underpinning all of this, is the confirmation that the current BPS will be replaced by an FSTP in 2025, with the full FSP coming into effect in 2026.   

From 2025, the minimum claim size that farmers can make will increase from 3ha to 5ha. For those individuals who did not actively farm in 2020 and 2021, they will not qualify for a in 2025, nor will they receive new FSP entitlements.

This change will impact landowners who have no livestock or are not growing arable crops.

Many still receive BPS entitlements and trade these each year, while others manage to meet active farming rules by keeping their land in prime agricultural condition or creating revenue from selling grass/grass silage. They will no longer be able to do this under the new payments.

DAERA has outlined that these landowners have until the closure of the entitlement trading window in May 2025 to sell their BPS entitlements.

“If they miss this deadline, their BPS entitlements will lose all value,” Elliot added.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now received almost 64,000 applications for area-based schemes, including the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme.

The department has confirmed to Agriland that 63,962 applications had been submitted as of Monday, April 29.

This means that an additional 17,474 applications have been made to the department in a week.

DAFM previously confirmed that 46,488 applications had been made by Monday, April 15.

BISS

Farmers or their advisors now have just over two weeks to submit applications as the closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15.

Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) was replaced by BISS.

Last year, over 124,000 BISS applications were lodged with the department. Based on this figure it means that around half of farmers are yet to submit their scheme application for 2024.

Farmers can currently apply for all elements of direct payments (BISS, Eco-Schemes, Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, Protein Aid, National Reserve, transferring of entitlements) online.

DAFM has said that annual payment claims for the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) can also be made online.

In-person clinics being run by the department to help farmers with their online applications are still running around the country.

The details of the remaining clinics, which take place from 10:00a.m to 4:30p.m, are as follows:

• Tuesday, April 30: DAFM offices, Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim;
• Wednesday, May 1: Shirley Arms Hotel, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan;
• Thursday, May 2: DAFM offices, Cavan;
• Tuesday, May 7: Minella Hotel, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary;
• Wednesday, May 8: Firgrove Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork;
• Thursday, May 9: DAFM offices, Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

The department is also running helplines to assist farmers in making their BISS applications online:

• 049 4368288 in relation to queries on registering for www.agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register etc;
• 057 8674422 in relation to queries on completing the BISS application once registered on www.agfood.ie or to request a paper copy of the terms and conditions.

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The online training course for participants in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP), which was announced yesterday (Monday, April 29) risks “excluding those who need this scheme the most”.

That’s according to the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), which has criticised the move by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide online training to participants in the scheme, saying that the fact that the training is online-only could exclude older farmers, or those with inadequate internet connections.

ICSA suckler chairperson Jimmy Cosgrave said: “The move is very concerning, especially considering the older age demographic of suckler farmers.

“Many of these farmers may not have reliable internet access or have the necessary computer skills to navigate complex platforms.

“The focus should be on ensuring as many farmers as possible can benefit from the scheme rather than putting barriers in place,” Cosgrave added.

He called on the minister to put alternative training arrangements in place to provide for those farmers who may have difficulty accessing online training.

“The SCEP scheme is vital for the sustainability of the suckler sector and provides much-needed financial support for our suckler farmers, the majority of whom are older and operate with extremely low incomes,” Cosgrave added.

“By offering online training only, however, we risk excluding those who need this scheme the most.

“The onus is on the minister to ensure no farmer gets left behind, and the only way to ensure that is to provide an option to complete this training in-person for those that need it,” the ICSA suckler chairperson added.

As part of the terms and conditions of SCEP, farmers are required to complete a mandatory online training course on scheme actions and livestock handling by November 15, 2024.

The department has warned that failure to complete the course by the deadline will render farmers ineligible to remain in the programme and monies received will have to be repaid.

Completion of all the course, which consists of an explainer video and seven online course modules, will be verified by the department.

The department has said that each module should take, on average, around 30 minutes to complete.

Farmers can choose to do all the modules at once or complete them in stages.

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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has committed to finalising a scheme for the so-called “forgotten farmers” this year.

The group of farmers lost out following the removal of young farmer supports under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), such as installation aid, due to cuts in public expenditure by the government following the last recession.

In the Dáil Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the minister for an update on the long-awaited scheme to compensate these farmers.

“In our last round of questions back in February, the minister advised that his department was looking at establishing a system, but there is still no detail about what that scheme would look like.

“I have met with farmers who are part of this cohort known as the forgotten farmers. They are really at the end of their tether and are wondering if they should continue with their farms, so this is something that is urgently overdue,” the Roscommon-Galway TD said.

Forgotten farmers

In response, Minister McConalogue reiterated his commitment to support the forgotten farmers, adding that he will “deliver support to reflect the impact their missing out on certain payments had on their farming enterprises”.

According to analysis from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), it is estimated that there are between 3,500 and 7,000 farmers affected.

“This is a group of farmers whose members were under 40 in 2015 when the situation first came to light.

“At that point, they had already been actively farming for more than five years, meaning they were ineligible to access the national reserve in the previous CAP programme in 2015 to obtain an allocation of payment entitlements,” McConalogue said.

“Since this issue came to the fore back in 2015 and 2016, many of these farmers have already bought or rented entitlements, which is a key factor in eligibility for payments in the outgoing CAP programme and today.

“Although they now hold these entitlements, it remains that they were required to pay for them, in most instances, on the open market,” the minister added.

Scheme

The department of agriculture has develop a “preliminary outline of a proposal” to provide support to the forgotten farmer group.

“The support that was initially requested by the group was for access to the national reserve, but at this point, many of these farmers now hold entitlements already.

“In this regard, work continues on addressing a number of issues, such as the requirements for the type and level of supports that are required, the funding required and consistency with public expenditure and state aid considerations.

“I am committed to stepping this out and delivering for these farmers within the term of this government,” Minister McConalogue said.

However, Deputy Kerrane said the forgotten farmers need certainty that a scheme is forthcoming.

“In a number of weeks, we will be going into summer recess. We will be coming back for the budget. By the sounds of things, there is no detailed scheme in place with regard to what this will look like.

“There is no funding in place either, and the minister has committed that it will be done before the end of this term of government, which is now a matter of months away,” she said.

Minister McConalogue said that his focus over the past year has been getting the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) programme “up and running”.

Along with the budgetary aspect of a scheme for the forgotten farmers, he said that an IT system would be needed “to identify all the farmers accurately and to deliver the final scheme”.

“That work is ongoing and it will take a number of months to work through that,” he said.

“This is a legacy issue that goes back more than ten years, that I am committed to finalising, and that I will do over the course of this year,” the minister added.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is still processing 540 applications made under tranche 1 of the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

According to the latest statistics provided by the department, an additional 69 applications were approved in the week up to Friday, April 26.

This means that 6,882 or almost 84% of the 8,203 applications made under tranche 1 have now been cleared by officials.

The department began issued approvals for tranche 1 back in December and has been gradually making its way through applications since.

Currently, 577 applications have been rejected by the department, while some 204 applications have been withdrawn.

The following table provides a breakdown of the status of applications under the 10 TAMS 3 schemes:

The data shows that an additional 38 applications were approved under the Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme during the week.

2,008 out of 2,494 applications have been approved, 233 are still “in progress”, 182 were rejected and 71 withdrawn.

There were 9 further approvals issued for the Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme.

37 out of 259 applications made under this scheme are still being processed, 195 have been approved, 20 rejected and 7 withdrawn.

Last week there were 7 approvals each granted in the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme, Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme and the Solar Capital Investment Scheme.

There were no further approvals issued in the past week for the following schemes: Dairy Equipment Scheme, Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme and the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme.

Low Emission Slurry Spreading remains the only scheme where all applications have been dealt with by the department.

TAMS

Meanwhile, the number of applications made by farmers under tranche 3 of new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) is down by almost 60% when compared with the previous round.

Figures released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show that 3,802 applications were submitted under tranche 3, compared to 9,110 in tranche 2.

That data provided to Agriland shows that the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) was once again the most popular scheme in this latest tranche with 1,055 applications.

However, this is down from the 3,113 applications made under the scheme in tranche 2 and the 2,050 applications submitted in tranche 1.

The Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme was the second most popular scheme in tranche 3 with 998 applications.

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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has today (Monday, April 29) announced the launch of an online training course for participants in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP).

As part of the terms and conditions of scheme, farmers are required to complete a mandatory online training course on SCEP actions and livestock handling by November 15, 2024.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has warned that failure to complete the course by the deadline will render farmers ineligible to remain in the programme and monies received will have to be repaid.

Completion of all the course, which consists of a brief explainer video and seven online course modules, will be verified by the department.

SCEP

The training course, which has been developed by a professional e-learning company, can be accessed online at www.sceptraining.ie.

The department has said that each module should take, on average, around 30 minutes to complete.

Farmers can choose to do all the modules at once or complete them in stages. It is possible to partially complete a module and pick up where you left off the next time you log in.

The department will provide SCEP farmers with a pin number to access the online course in an information letter which will be issued by post over the coming days.

The pin number will also be accessible through the Agfood accounts of SCEP participants.

DAFM has reminded farmers that they need a valid email address to gain access to the training material.

Online course

Minister McConalogue said that the letter being issued by the department to SCEP farmers provides all the information necessary to log onto the website.

“The course can be completed in stages and there are support facilities available for anyone encountering difficulties getting started on their training.

“The big advantage of online training is its flexibility enabling busy farmers to proceed at their own pace and in their own time on whatever electronic device is convenient for them and they can revisit the material whenever they want,” he said.

The training material has been devised by the department with the assistance of Teagasc, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and other beef sector experts.

The course is focused on the SCEP actions that farmers must undertake as part of the programme – breeding strategies, genotyping, weighing and calving surveys – and also includes a module on farm safety and livestock handling.

Minister McConalogue urged all farmers to engage with the training as soon as possible.

“The training is laid out in a very user-friendly format: it is easy to navigate, and key information is conveyed effectively in relatively short modules.

“There are some interesting demonstration videos on the programme’s core actions which, I think, will be of particular interest and relevance to farmers.

“A module on farm safety is included because we can never lose sight of the challenges that farming poses to health and wellbeing. If we aware of the risks, we can take action to mitigate them,” he said.

SCEP participants who have questions on any aspect of programme implementation or training, they can contact the department’s helpdesk at 057 867 4422 or email scep@agriculture.gov.ie.

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Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that farmers who applied for the ‘General’ approach of the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) tranche 2 are now receiving their approval letters.

Earlier this month, the minister announced that 2,300 farmers who had applied for the ‘co-operation project’ (CP) approach under tranche 2 of the scheme would be getting their approval letters.

Now, the minister has said that the remaining eligible applicants (out of 9,000 farmers who applied to the tranche) would be getting their approval letters.

Commenting on the issuing of these letters, the minister said: “I am delighted to confirm that approval letters for tranche 2 ACRES general applicants have begun to issue.

“Approval letters for all valid applications will appear in farmers’ Agfood accounts, with a text alert issuing to those signed up to receive them.

“Formal letters by post will follow shortly. In addition, I can confirm that formal letters started to issue at the end of last week, by post, to participants recently approved into the ACRES co-operation project approach,” the minister said.

He also said that all ACRES tranche 2 participants will receive an approval summary in the coming weeks.

Minister McConalogue said: “This is an important document that sets out, by parcel, the actions for which participants have received approval.

“In addition, all participants will receive a Farmland Plant Identification Key. This full-colour booklet will assist farmers in identifying positive and negative grass and peatland indicators, and in assessing the condition of these lands.

“I have no doubt that participants will find this publication useful,” he commented.

The minister reminded farmers that those participants that have commonage, or have selected the low-input grassland or low-input grassland actions, will have their lands scored by a CP team, or their own advisor, respectively, over the coming months.

The minister confirmed in early March that all 9,000 farmers who applied for tranche 2 of ACRES will be accepted.

This brings the total number of participants to 55,000, 5,000 more than than the figure that was originally envisaged.

When the first tranche opened it was planned that it would cater for 30,000 farmers, with a further 20,000 later entering in tranche 2.

However, an enthusiastic response from farmers saw 46,000 apply to tranche 1, all of whom were accepted into the scheme.

The minister had said on a number of occasions that the number of applicants that could be accepted into tranche 2, as a result of the high demand in tranche 1, was 4,000.

However, ultimately he decided to accept all 9,000 who applied.

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Almost €2.5 million has been paid to farmers as part of the hay meadow measure in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) 2023.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue provided the information as part of a response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin TD, Martin Kenny.

The TD requested information about how many hectares of land farmers applied for under the measure and how much was paid out.

The minister stated that the actions in ACRES which may be considered as “the hay meadow measure” are low input grassland (LIG) and low input peat grassland (LIPG).

McConalogue added that the late meadow bonus (LMB) is also available as part of those actions and outlined the detail in the table below.

The minister said that the payment figures reflect the ACRES General applicants who have been paid their advance payment to date.

Meanwhile, Minister McConalogue said “total payment figures will be available after the full year payment calculations are finalised in June”.

ACRES

ACRES General advance payments commenced on December 15, 2023, and approximately 19,719 farmers were paid a total of €88.356 million by early February 2024.

The first interim payment run of €4,000 for the schemes general participants and €5,000 for ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) participants was paid on February 28, 2024, amounting to €113.617 million.

A second interim payment run totalling €5.923 million was processed last month. Thus, a total of 44,780 participants have now received payments totalling €207.8 million in advance and interim payments, according to the minister.

The minister said that the decision to issue interim payments, where advance payments had not yet been received, was particularly due to the “additional complexity” associated with payments to CP participants.

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EU member states have been urged to begin applying simplified rules under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) before the year is out.

This week, the European Parliament adopted a raft of measures to simplify the CAP in two different votes, in response to a series of farmer protests earlier this year.

These revisions to the CAP, if implemented, would see farms under 10ha in size being exempt from controls and non-compliance under some CAP rules.

The revisions will also see changes to some of the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs).

Responding to the votes, Copa Cogeca, the group representing EU farm organisations and agricultural co-operatives, said: “The European Parliament adopted two commission proposals regarding the CAP simplification package for the short, medium and long-term.

“The first one…focused on the modifications to GAEC 1, gives member states necessary flexibility to consider exceptional structural changes in the conversion of permanent grassland areas,” a Copa statement noted.

“The second [vote]…deals in particular with GAECs 6, 7, and 8, providing more leeway in implementing the CAP, considering climatic, geo-political, and local conditions while safeguarding the transition towards more sustainable agriculture,” the farmer group added.

“The challenging implementation of the new, highly complex CAP in January 2023 compounded by the extreme weather events, and geo-political and economic context, made it difficult, if not impossible, to meet certain technical or timely requirements.”

“In this context, the fast adoption by MEPs of the proposals made by the European Commission is seen as a positive signal to the urgency of addressing the concerns that farmers have expressed during the past few months when it comes to the administrative burden associated with the implementation of the CAP,” Copa added.

The group is urging member states to apply the revised ules and to come up with the implementing legislation “as soon as possible” so that these changes can be applied at farm level this year.

Copa also called on the European Commission to continue “this simplification exercise” by following up with additional proposals.

“We also call on member states to use all existing possibilities to simplify the existing national implementing rules to minimise and ease the administrative burden on farmers,” the farm organisation said.

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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been urged to pay farmers “on time, every time” by the Independent TD for Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae.

He said that farmers are hearing over and over “that payments were delayed because of a glitch in the system”.

“The payment could be as simple as a Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) grant or an Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) or Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) payment.

“It could be any one of a variety of schemes. The farmers are being told there is a glitch in the system and their money is held up.

“Farming works on a tight budget and a tight margin,” Deputy Healy-Rae told both the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, during a Dáil debate this week.

Deputy Healy-Rae

He said that the crux of the matter was that farmers needed money coming in so that they can “pay it out” and asked both ministers if farmers could be guaranteed that if they submitted applications for schemes they would “get payments on a timely basis”.

Deputy Healy-Rae added: “Being blunt about it, we have a terribly bad reputation in the Department of Agriculture for delaying payments.

“All I ask is that it would be sorted out.”

He also said the fodder scheme – while very welcome – was not “user-friendly”

Deputy Healy-Rae told the Dáil: “I know plenty of people who could do with it but they have not applied for it.

“The minister might look at the statistics and say it is not really needed at all but that is wrong. It is, but people will not apply for it.

“The very people who are applying for it are owed money by the Department of Agriculture already. That is what I am saying about schemes like that. We need to streamline and be more efficient about our duties and pay people on time, every time.”

Payments

In response Minister McConalogue said the “importance of prompt payments” was something the Government absolutely agrees on.

The minister said that because it was the first year of a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) there were “particular challenges”.

He said that as a result some payment dates set at the start of the year “were between one and four weeks later than they would have been in previous years”.

“This year, we will revert to all of the traditional dates.

“We are committed to making sure that we pay very high percentages on those dates this year,” the minister pledged.

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An Irish MEP has questioned if a proposal to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is designed to manipulate the farming vote ahead of the European elections.

The European Parliament voted yesterday (Wednesday, April 24) to approve a review of the CAP as proposed by the EU Commission to cut red tape for farmers.

The “targeted review”, which must now be approved by the EU Council, covers several Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC) standards to ease the administrative burden for EU farmers.

425 MEPs voted in favour of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation and the CAP Horizontal Regulation, with 130 against, and 33 abstentions.

CAP

Independent Irish MEP Luke Ming Flanagan was among those who abstained in the final vote.

“We cannot ignore the context and timing of this he said, we are on the run in to an election, this proposal is designed to manipulate the farming vote, rather than the real market reforms that are needed to allow farmers to make a decent living from their work,” he said.

The MEP said the proposal to exempt farmers from inspection may sound good but warned that “the devil is in the detail”.

“If 65% of the farmers across the EU are exempted from inspections then it follows the remaining 35% will face a higher possibility of inspection to meet the 1% control threshold required in the regulation.

“Farmers are already under a huge amount of pressure related to adverse weather, cost of inputs and price pressure from retailers.

“We cannot add more uncertainty to their lives with the possibility of more inspection and then try to dress it up as something positive,” Flanagan said.

The MEP, who is part of a group in the parliament that unsuccessfully tabled several amendments, said that the proposal was “tinkering around the edges” when “real reform” of the CAP is required.

He added that the EU should not be allowed to walk away from its responsibilities to undertake market reform which would allow those that produce food to make a decent income.

Bureaucracy

Fine Gael MEP Colm Markey welcomed the outcome of the vote saying that Irish farmers will face less bureaucracy.

The Midlands-North-West MEP, who sits on the EU Committee on Agriculture, believes the result is a win for farmers.

“We have listened to farmers concerns over recent months and responded by relaxing the CAP rules, reducing unnecessary bureaucratic burdens and offering more flexibilities to member states.

“The EPP Group recognised the huge challenges farmers are currently facing due to a number of factors, including the war in Ukraine, and responded with these targeted adjustments,” he said.

“Despite attempts by the Greens and the Left to torpedo this vote, I was delighted that a majority of 420 MEPs had the common sense to vote in favour.

“While it’s disappointing that these measures did not have the support of all Irish MEPs, it was crucial that we got it over the line before Parliamentary business wraps up before the EU elections in June,” Markey added.

Incomes

Meanwhile, the organic food and farming movement has said that simplifying certain CAP rules fails to address unfair pricing and poor incomes which has led to farmer protests in recent months.

Jan Plagge, IFOAM Organics Europe president, said that it was “a step backwards for Europe’s food and farming sector”.

“This ‘simplification’ is a missed opportunity and lowers the CAP’s environmental requirements without providing a comparative advantage to farmers who want to invest in ambitious sustainable farming systems, like organic and other agroecological practices.

“The proposal fails to address the real issues of low prices linked to power imbalances and will ultimately undermine the EU’s environmental ambitions and the CAP’s legitimacy,” he said.

Plagge said that the vote in the parliament will “drive member states in an environmental race to the bottom and encourages farmers’ to lower their engagements to public goods”.

“Farmers, especially those engaged in sustainable production methods, such as organic farming, should be fairly remunerated by both the market and the CAP,” he added.

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The number of applications made by farmers under tranche 3 of new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) is down by almost 60% when compared with the previous round.

Figures released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show that 3,802 applications were submitted under tranche 3, compared to 9,110 in tranche 2.

That data provided to Agriland shows that the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) was once again the most popular scheme in this latest tranche with 1,055 applications.

However, this is down from the 3,113 applications made under the scheme in tranche 2 and the 2,050 applications submitted in tranche 1.

The Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme was the second most popular scheme in tranche 3 with 998 applications.

The following table provides a full breakdown of the applications made for each scheme by farmers under all tranches of TAMS 3 to date:

There was a significant fall in numbers applying for the Solar Capital Investment Scheme (SCIS) in this round at 329, down from 738 in tranche 2.

The number of applications made for the Organic Capital Investment Scheme (OCIS) was almost half of what was submitted in tranche 2 (634), at 321.

170 applications were made to the department for the Women Farmer Capital Investment Scheme, compared to 438 in tranche 2.

There were 89 applications made for the Dairy Equipment Scheme, down from 217 in tranche 2.

While, 216 applications were lodged for the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS) as opposed to 444 in the previous tranche.

TAMS

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue previously announced that all eligible applications under tranche 3 of TAMS 3 will be approved.

The minister also confirmed the closing dates for the remaining tranches of TAMS 3 that will be undertaken in 2024.

Tranche 4 is now open and will close for applications on Friday, September 6, while tranche 5 will close on Friday, December 6, 2024.

“Work is continuing at pace on the approval of tranche 1 and 2 applications, and this will be followed by the processing of this latest significant batch of applications received under tranche 3,” he said.

Since December, the department has approved over 6,800 applications made under tranche 1.

An additional 83 applications were cleared in the week up to Friday, April 19.

This means that 6,813 or 83% out of the total 8,203 applications made under tranche 1 have now been approved.

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The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has provided clarification on how the department intends to take forward the transition of Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements into the new Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) entitlements.

The transition takes place ahead of the launch of the Farm Sustainability Transition Payment (FSTP) next year (2025).

It is currently planned that the current Basic Payment Scheme will be replaced by an FSTP in 2025, with the full FSP coming into operation in 2026.

Speaking about the transition, a spokesperson for DAERA said: “One of the eligibility requirements for FSTP in 2025 and FSP from 2026 onwards will be the need for eligible farm businesses to activate five entitlements on five hectares of eligible land.

“To allow businesses to plan effectively, it is important to provide details at this stage of how the department plans to take forward the process of moving from BPS entitlements to FSP entitlements.”

With the introduction of FSTP in 2025, BPS entitlements will expire and be replaced with FSP entitlements.

Those businesses that did not meet the farming activity requirements in the previously announced historic reference period of 2020 and/or 2021 will not be eligible for FSTP in 2025, and will not receive FSP entitlements.

These businesses will have until the closure of the entitlement trading window in May 2025 to sell their BPS entitlements, otherwise they will cease to have a value.

The spokesperson continued: “The changes outlined above reflect the policy decisions to date.

“However, before it will be possible to provide a definitive way forward the department is required to have underpinning legislation passed in the Assembly, which will be taken forward in the next number of months.”

The introduction of the Farm Sustainability Payment is in line with the decisions contained within the document entitled ‘Future Agricultural Policy Decisions for Northern Ireland’.

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It appears that concerns remain over delays to approvals under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), despite a commitment from Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue that all eligible applications under tranche 3 will be approved.

The minister said last week that all eligible applications to the tranche – which closed on April 12 – will be approved, saying he was “delighted” with the number of applications to tranche 3, which numbered 3,802.

However, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the minister’s commitment “counts for nothing” without formal notices of approval being sent to farmers.

Eamon Carroll, deputy president and farm and rural affairs chairperson of the ICMSA, said that farmers are unable to proceed with on-farm work for which they have applied for funding until formal notification is received.

“The delays involved, [which are] already ridiculous, will not be solved until those formal notifications are issued. The reality is that there are still applicants from tranche 1 who have yet to receive formal approval, despite the fact that their closing date was in summer 2023, and we know of cases where applications have been submitted for over a year,” Carroll said.

Carroll also criticised the department for what he claimed was a “double standard” on these delays.

“The department can take as long as it likes to issue an approval while, at the same time, writing to farmers with a query telling them to respond within 20 days or their application will be rejected in full,” he said.

“This is the kind of double standard that has made farmer interaction with the department so fraught and irksome. There’s one rule for the department and a second, much more abrupt, rule for the farmer.”

Carroll also claimed that Minister McConalogue “continues to stall” on concluding the Farmers’ Charter, which, the ICMSA deputy president said, “might offer farmers some protection”.

According to Carroll, farmers cannot have confidence to invest if the approval for their investment is delayed “so long that the building price quotes…are completely out of date”.

He called for the department to prioritise the work of approving TAMS applications so that all applications from the first three tranches are approved by the end of June.

Carroll also called for the four TAMS tranches scheduled for next year to be “set in stone” so that they open and close at quarterly intervals. He said this will bring a “degree of certainty” for farmers and their advisors.

“There is, however, no point in having certainty on tranche closing dates if approval can take up to a year to come through. This needs to stop and the minister must address it immediately,” the ICMSA representative said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now received more than 46,000 applications for area-based schemes, including the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme.

Data provided to Agriland by the department shows that 46,488 applications had been submitted as of Monday, April 22.

This marks an increase of over 9,000 applications in a week; the department previously confirmed 37,314 applications had been made as of Monday, April 15.

It comes as farmers or their advisors have just over three weeks left to this year’s deadline.

The closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) has been replaced by the BISS.

Last year, over 124,000 BISS applications were lodged with the department.

DAFM

Farmers can currently apply for all elements of direct payments (BISS, Eco-Schemes, Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, Protein Aid, National Reserve, transferring of entitlements) online.

DAFM has said that annual payment claims for the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) can also be made online.

The department is currently running a series of in-person clinics for farmers on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes.

The clinics, being held at venues around the country, take place from 10:00a.m to 4:30p.m.

The following is a list of the remaining events that are taking place over the coming weeks:

• Wednesday, April 24: Spraoi agus Spórt, Supervalu, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal;
• Thursday, April 25: Central Hotel, Donegal Town;
• Tuesday, April 30: DAFM offices, Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim;
• Wednesday, May 1: Shirley Arms Hotel, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan;
• Thursday, May 2: DAFM offices, Cavan;
• Tuesday, May 7: Minella Hotel, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary;
• Wednesday, May 8: Firgrove Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork;
• Thursday, May 9: DAFM offices, Clonakilty, Co. Cork.

Farmers who want to contact the department in relation to online applications can also use the following helplines:

• 049 4368288 in relation to queries on registering for www.agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register etc;
• 057 8674422 in relation to queries on completing the BISS application once registered on www.agfood.ie or to request a paper copy of the terms and conditions.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now approved over 6,800 applications made under tranche 1 of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).

The latest data provided by the department shows that an additional 83 applications were cleared in the week up to Friday, April 19.

This means that 6,813 or 83% out of the total 8,203 applications made under tranche 1 have now been approved.

Staff in the department began issuing approvals in December and have been gradually working through applications across the 10 schemes contained in TAMS 3 since.

The latest figures show that 628 applications are still “in progress”, 558 were rejected and 204 have been withdrawn.

The following table provides an update on the current status of applications made across the 10 TAMS 3 schemes:

Last week, an additional 30 applications were given the green light under the Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme.

1,970 out of 2,494 applications made for this scheme have now been approved, 168 rejected and 71 withdrawn. A further 285 applications are still awaiting a decision.

The data shows that 19 more applications were cleared for the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIP), meaning that 1,695 out of 2,050 applications now being approved.

The department has rejected 218 FSCIP applications, making it the scheme with the highest number of rejections to date.

100 of the 715 applications made by farmers for the Solar Capital Investment Scheme are still in the system. 586 applications have been approved, 51 rejected and 14 withdrawn.

TAMS

There were no further applications approved last week for the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS). 394 out of the 445 applications have been cleared, with 6 still in progress.

In response to a recent parliamentary question, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that expanding the TCIS would cost the State €120 million.

Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Claire Kerrane asked the minister about extending the scheme to farmers with less than 15ha of land.

Minister McConalogue said that the total number of farms in Ireland with tillage crops less than 15 hectares amounts to slightly over 10,000 farms.

“Based on the current average grant aid in TAMS of €12,000, this would equate to an additional budget allocation of €120 million, assuming all 10,000 applied for grant aid under the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme.

“With this in mind, I have no plans to widen the eligibility criteria for the scheme at this time,” he said.

The post Over 6,800 TAMS tranche 1 applications approved – DAFM appeared first on Agriland.ie.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has said that expanding the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS) would cost the State €120 million.

The TCIS which is part of the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3) provides financial support to farmers to help them achieve improved competitiveness, increased efficiency, growth and environmental benefits.

It is open to farmers who have a minimum of 15ha of owned, leased or rented lands declared under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), or equivalent, in the year of application or preceding year.

Tillage Capital Investment Scheme

In a parliamentary question, Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Claire Kerrane asked Minister McConalogue the cost of extending the TCIS to farmers with less than 15ha of land.

In response, the minister said that TAMS 3 is a “demand-led scheme, with significant budgetary constraints”.

“In order to ensure the most efficient allocation of resources under the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme, the scheme is specifically targeted at farmers who have tillage as their main enterprise,” he said.

McConalogue added that the costs of extending the eligibility criteria as suggested by Deputy Kerrane would be “significant”.

“Just to put this into context, the total number of farms in Ireland with tillage crops less than 15 hectares amounts to slightly over 10,000 farms.

“Based on the current average grant aid in TAMS of €12,000, this would equate to an additional budget allocation of €120 million, assuming all 10,000 applied for grant aid under the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme.

“With this in mind, I have no plans to widen the eligibility criteria for the scheme at this time,” he said.

Separately, Minister McConalogue said that a total of 365,860ha was claimed as tillage crops in 2023.

This figure was based on data from the 126,419 area-based scheme applications submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

“15,917 herds claimed at least one parcel with a tillage crop. The average farm size for these herds with at least one tillage crop was 61.04ha,” the minister said.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) issued over €4.3 million in outstanding scheme payments to farmers over the past week.

The latest data published the department shows that payments worth €1.85 million were made under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS).

119,926 farmers have now received a total of €828 million under the schemes.

This figure includes 2023 Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (€31.6 million) and 2023 National Reserve (€4.3 million)

DAFM

The figures, which cover the week up to Friday (April 19), outline that €460,000 was paid out to farmers under the 2023 Eco Scheme.

The department has now issued over €308 million to 120,141 farmers through the scheme which was introduced as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Some €150,000 was issued to farmers who were part of the 2023 National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme, which has now paid out a total of €5.3 million to 8,402 farmers.

The data shows that the data paid €1.27 million to farmers for the Fodder Support Scheme (FSS) which was introduced last year.

An additional €67,767 was issued by the department under the 2022 Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and Areas of Specific Constraint (ASC).

DAFM paid out €55,132 this week to farmers in the 2023 Organic Farming Scheme (OFS). 3,848 farmers have now received a combined €39.4 million under that scheme.

While €24,000 was paid out to farmers who were awaiting payment under the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

TAMS

The figures state that €471,882 was also paid out over the past week under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Schemes (TAMS).

Earlier this week, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed that all eligible applications under tranche 3 of TAMS 3 will be approved.

A total of 3,802 applications were received across the ten available TAMS 3 measures

The minister also confirmed the closing dates for the remaining tranches of TAMS 3 that will be undertaken in 2024.

Tranche 4 is now open and will close for applications on Friday, September 6, and tranche 5 will close on Friday, December 6, 2024.

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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is still processing 661 applications made under the 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme.

Officials are also working through 930 applications submitted for the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme.

Details on the number of outstanding agricultural scheme payments was recently sought by Sinn Féin spokesperson for agriculture, Claire Kerrane in a parliamentary question.

Payments

In response, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that there are currently 120,463 “potentially eligible BISS applicants”, of which 119,802 have received payment.

Under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) has been replaced by the BISS.

The maximum payment that will be granted to any one farmer under the BISS, in any one scheme year is capped at an effective rate of €66,000.

“The majority of the 661 unpaid herds for BISS and 930 unpaid herds for ANC are cases where the applicant has not yet provided the required documents to support their claim.

“In other cases, the applicant has not fulfilled certain obligations, for example stocking rate under active farmer provisions,” Minister McConalogue said.

This means that a total of 1,591 BISS and ANC payments are still working their way through the system.

DAFM has also confirmed to Agriland that a total of 385 participants in Tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are still waiting for their interim payment.

The interim payment to ACRES Tranche 1 participants who had not yet received their advance payments was announced by Minister McConalogue in February.

In total €119.5 million has been issued in interim payments to 25,061 ACRES participants to date.

In relation to the outstanding cases, the department said there “remain a range of outstanding queries”, such as in relation to ownership/change of title.

DAFM said it is continuing to resolve these outstanding queries with the relevant applicants, and that payments will be made “as appropriate” when this work is completed.

BISS

Meanwhile, the department has received over 37,000 applications for 2024 area-based schemes, including the BISS scheme.

The latest data provided by the department shows that 37,314 applications had been made as of Monday, April 15.

It comes as farmers and advisors have now less than a month left to complete and submit applications.

The closing date for BISS applications in 2024 is Wednesday, May 15, 2024.

The post Almost 1,600 BISS and ANC scheme payments outstanding appeared first on Agriland.ie.

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.

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.

Advice

The “clawback” of 20%, where entitlements were sold without land previously, has been removed temporarily for 2023 and 2024.

Last year, 37,946 transfer of entitlements applications were submitted to the department.

This figure is an increase of nearly 5,000 compared to the number of entitlement transfer applications made the previous year.

The temporary removal of the clawback resulted in an increase in sales to just under 6,500 in 2023, up from around 1,300 in the previous year.

As with any significant financial decision, farmers should seek professional advice ahead of proceeding with a transfer.

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