Frustration is growing among farmers not yet paid the basic payment advance or Areas of Natural Constraint (ANCs) payment.

The Department had paid €661m to 105,586 farmers. That leaves 14,000 still to be paid an advance.

In the same week last year, 114,000 had been paid, leaving around 8,000 unpaid. While the normal over claims and dual claims made up a large percentage, as usual, a number of new issues have arisen in 2015 due to the changeover to the new system and stretched resources in the Department.

Among those who contacted the Irish Farmers Journal the greatest annoyance was associated with cases where there was an issue with the Department’s process rather than issues with their applications.

Top of the list was where maps were digitised but have not yet been sent back by the company.

In some cases, farmers who got through to the helpline were told that of 8,000 maps sent back, over 3,000 have not been returned. Their applications are in limbo until the digitised maps are unlocked.

Another major issue is partnership cases, especially where new partnerships were established this year. The reason here appears to be “computer says no” when trying to link one internal system with another, and they have to be done manually.

New entrants to commonage also appear to be holding up the payment for existing commonage farmers. In some cases, the follow-up investigations have identified issues with existing commonage farmers as well.

A number of farmers who applied for the green, low-carbon, agri-environment scheme (GLAS) appear to be held up due to the changes made in the maps that were submitted for the scheme.

Transfers of entitlements through gift or inheritance are being held up where applications are not yet processed.

The processing of private contract clauses appear slower this year, due to a backlog from other issues. They continue to be processed, but no letters have been set out.

In most cases, the farmer’s payment was made without the leased-in entitlement values paid out. As there can only be one advance payment, farmers will have to wait until after 1 December to get the balance of all payments.

AOES and REPS

Around 20,000 farmers in AOES and 500 still in REPS can now expect payment in early December.

It was hoped to get payment out in late October, but farmers will now get 85% of the payment in early December, with the remaining 15% balancing payment shortly afterward.

The AOES payments made in December could come to €80m, although around 4,000 farmers who jumped into GLAS in 2015 will get a GLAS payment instead.

GLAS approvals and payments

Farmers have started to receive the approval letters for the first tranche of GLAS. The GLAS planners also have access to approval notifications for farmers they submitted as well as the ones that fell short.

As predicted last week, the majority have been approved. Around 400 did not meet the 16.3 points required on the Department scoring matrix, but these farmers are being told they can apply immediately under the second tranche.

While 25,000 farmers are cleared for payment, around 2,000 farmers have partial issues that have to be cleared.