Irish Farmers Association (IFA)

“Land eligibility is the single biggest issue for the majority of farmers out there at the minute,” IFA president Eddie Downey said.

“Farmers are worried. They are worried about what they don’t know and what the Department (of Agriculture) is refusing to tell them. We’re coming into the business end of (farm scheme) applications and farmers have absolutely no idea what is eligible land and what isn’t on their holdings.

“It’s not acceptable that farmers are being left in limbo at what is now the 11th hour,” Downey said.

ACA

“We now have seven weeks to go (before the deadline for the Basic Payment Scheme application) and an awful lot of work needs to be done between now and then,” ACA president Tom Dawson said.

“What we need right now is the Department of Agriculture to come out and tell farmers and planners what is eligible land and what is ineligible land. ACA advisers are being cautious to the point of being over-cautious with what we are leaving in and leaving out of maps. We still have no clarity,” Dawson added.

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA)

“In the summer of 2013, farmers entered into their Single Farm Payments in good faith. That autumn new maps came out to farmers with red lines through pieces of their land, which basically said: ‘This land is eligible, this land isn’t eligible’,” ICSA general secretary Eddie Punch said at the meeting.

“What we need is tolerance, so that where there are grey areas farmers can be given time to rectify any problem that arises. Where farmers can benefit from tolerance in the system, farmers should benefit,” Punch added.

Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA)

“This whole mess (regarding land eligibility) is not the farmer’s concern to be quite frank,” Brendan Joyce of the INHFA said.

“The alternative is that the Department (of Agriculture) goes with the status quo and that option is frightening. If we continue down the route we are going, this will lead to land abandonment on the hills. There is one situation where there are 240 cattle (on a commonage). This number will be cut to 100 if the eligibility rules as they stand are enforced,” Joyce added.

Irish Creamery and Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA)

“The level of detail now required is bordering on the ridiculous, it’s time-consuming for the farmer, the adviser and the Department, and any sane observer would have to seriously question the benefit and the associated cost of requiring this level of detail,” ICMSA president John Comer told the Irish Farmers Journal. He was not present at the Oireachtas meeting.