Of the 1,330 farmers to apply for the 2017 National Reserve, 1,160 were young farmers and 170 new entrants.

The Department of Agriculture gave the IFA an assurance that processing of these applications is under way and that eligible applicants will be paid in early December.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that some farmers have already received notice of the outcome of their application.

Under the Young Farmer Scheme, IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy said that 9,950 applications have been made, with 1,630 of these first-time applications.

Payments

At the charter meeting, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that a total of 131,000 farmers had applied for the 2017 Basic Payment Scheme, of which 113,619 applied online, a 13% increase on 2016 levels.

In relation to payments, Richard Kennedy insisted that the GLAS payment debacle of 2016 is not repeated and called for all outstanding payments to be made without any further delay as well as a full pay out to all applicants under the 2017 scheme later this year.

Review of inspections

The IFA also demanded an urgent review of the inspection and appeals procedure within the Department of Agriculture at the meeting held today.

He said this was line with the commitments given at the recent Oireachtas Agriculture Committee hearing on the issues and he requested that the review would commence without delay.

He has called for the publication of the Department handbook on inspections to be made public so that there is transparency on the instructions given to the inspectors and how inspections are actually carried out on the ground.

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