A final decision on the €181m eligibility fine being imposed on Ireland will not be known until well into 2015, the Department of Agriculture has confirmed.

Senior Department officials were in Brussels last week for an oral appeal hearing at the EU Conciliation Body. While Ireland will not escape a fine for weaknesses identified in the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), it is hoped the final decision by the European Commission will see a significant reduction in the amount imposed.

The Commission clawed back €3m from farmers’ 2014 Single Farm Payment (SFP) balance earlier this month due to land eligibility issues dating back to 2008. This is a lot less than originally anticipated. Around 13,000, or one on 10, farmers suffered an average deduction of €230.

The deductions can be traced back to an extensive LPIS review on over 900,000 parcels in 2013. That review was triggered by an EU audit that revealed weaknesses in the Irish system.

The Department confirmed that farmers who did not get a letter on eligibility in the reviews last year will not suffer deductions. However, the Department did not confirm that the recent claw back will draw a line under retrospective deductions.

One thing is certain: the focus on land eligibility will remain and come back into the spotlight in 2015 when the eligible hectares farmers submit will be used to establish their new Basic Payment Scheme entitlements for the new CAP regime.

Apart from eligibility deductions, all farmers paid more than €2,000 in 2014 suffered a cut of 1.3% to their balancing Single Farm Payment (SFP). This is to set up the crisis reserve for 2015.

The good news is that 2.3% will be repaid in January, partly due to the crisis fund being unused in 2014.