There were another 1,570 basic payment applications processed and paid out over the weekend. The €11.3m paid out brings the total paid up to €725.8m to 114,372 farmers. Processing is ongoing and farmers cleared this week will receive 97% of the payment they are due when the second tranche of payments goes out in the next week.

An expected €285m is due to go out from next Tuesday. Farmers already paid will receive an additional 27%, with the balance of 3% to be paid out in 2016. There will be a cut of 1.39% taken off all farmers who are paid over €2,000.

This is to create the agriculture crisis reserve fund for 2016. The EU has said that the 2015 crisis reserve fund went unspent, meaning farmers will receive the money back in early 2016.

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GLAS II

To date, in excess of 11,500 applications have been created on the Department’s online system, which went live on 20 November.

The deadline for submission of applications is still 7 December and the Department says no extension will be given.

The rough breakdown on created applications to date is 45% in Tier 1, 20% in Tier 2 and 35% in Tier 3.

The Department is working on issuing 85% of 2015 part-year payments before the end of 2015. The current budget of €20m provided for GLAS in 2015 will be sufficient to cover this 85% payment for all eligible applications.

All applications which have a 1 October 2015 start date and which meet the scheme’s payment validation protocols will receive the 85% part-year payment.

The Department is finalising its assessment of the 2,000 cases under query and decisions should be made on these cases during this week.

National Reserve

Letters identifying the number and value of entitlements farmers will receive from the National Reserve are still on track to be sent out before the end of the month.

Over 6,000 farmers applied, but over 700 have not responded to repeated requests for information and their application is at risk of being closed.

The message is get your paperwork and details completed this week.