"Since mid-October my Department has been issuing 70% advance payments to farmers under the Basic Payment Scheme," Minister Creed said in a statement. "From 1 December, balancing payments will begin issuing to farmers. These payments are an important boost for farmers in terms of addressing cash flow issues.”

The rollout of balancing payments will brings the total paid under the Basic Payment Scheme to €1.12bn. Some 121,000 farmers have received a payment to date, according to the Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, over 87,000 farmers have been paid a total of €188m under the ANC scheme.

Outstanding cases

The Minister said that his Department was continuing to prioritise the processing of outstanding cases under both schemes: "I can confirm that every effort continues to be made to clear for payment the small percentage of outstanding cases. Regular pay runs will continue to be run in December in order to process cases as quickly as possible. I am particularly pleased that we have continued to process payments at a rate that compares very favourably to the systems in place in other member states.”

IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy said the final BPS payment should be worth up to €400m and "must get out to farmers well before Christmas". "Farmers need their payments on time this year as the income crisis at farm family level is very severe," Kennedy said. He also called for for all other payments to be made without delay including GLAS, BDGP and other schemes.

Read more

Young Farmer Scheme payments to start on Thursday

Yellow card system in place for BPS inspections