At the moment, advance payments of 70% are being issued. Normally levels of advance payment are fixed at 50%. However, as a result of the difficulties encountered by Irish farmers, like their counterparts elsewhere in Europe in dairying and other sectors, the European Commission has increased the advance payment to 70% in respect of 2015.The next instalment of payments will begin on 1 December. A smaller balancing payment will be distributed in 2016.

Lower payments overall

Of the total budget, 2% is utilised for payment under the Young Farmers Scheme, while 3% of the basic payment ceiling will be used to fund allocations from the National Reserve. Therefore, payments to individual farmers are changing in 2015.

Allocation of 2015 BPS entitlements

  • Any farmer who was eligible to receive a direct payment under the 2013 scheme year had an automatic right to establish entitlements under the new BPS in 2015.
  • The entitlements allocated to a farmer under the BPS are based on the lesser number of eligible hectares declared by the farmer in 2013 and 2015.
  • The value of entitlements established in 2015 is calculated on a fixed percentage of the value of entitlements owned by the farmer under the 2014 scheme year, as well as any payment received under the Grassland Sheep Scheme.
  • Farmers who hold entitlements with a unit value below 90% of the national average value will have their benefits increased by one third of the difference between their starting value and the 90% level over the five years of the scheme.
  • Farmers who hold entitlements with a unit value over 100% of the national average value will see their value decrease over the duration of the scheme.
  • By 2019, all entitlements will have a minimum value of 60% of the national average value.
  • As all entitlements are subject to convergence towards 90% of the 2015 national average, the value of all entitlements may slightly alter as the processing of entitlements are finalised.

    Greening payment

    Greening is a separate scheme and is paid as a percentage of the total value of payment entitlements for which you have declared an eligible hectare. The percentage used for the calculation of the greening payment is 44.1656%.

    Deductions

    In the vast majority of cases there will be no deductions applicable with the exception of financial discipline, which is applied to all payments in excess of €2,000. There are a number of deductions which may apply in individual cases and include the following:

  • Over-declaration of eligible area.
  • Under-declaration of an eligible area.
  • Non-compliance with greening obligations.
  • Late application penalties (the deadline for the receipt of applications was 29 May).
  • Payments in excess of €150,000.
  • Financial discipline.
  • There are a number of ways to find out if you have been paid.

    Read more

    Farm payments glossary: BPS.

    Legal queries: Unannounced inspection under Basic Payment Scheme.