Farmers have raised concerns with the eligibility requirements for the Long-Established Young Farmers scheme announced last week, with many of the commonly referred to forgotten farmers left excluded from funding.

With the deadline for applications closing on Wednesday 13 August, farm organisations have confirmed they will look to hold discussions with the Department of Agriculture about funding and eligibility issues in the scheme.

Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) rural development chair John Curran said the scheme has excluded a group of “forgotten forgotten farmers”.

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“The main problem is that anyone who wants to apply, they had to be farming before the 31 December 2007. The farmers who have been looking, and who this scheme is for since day one, are the people who started farming in 2008, 2009, 2010.”

Meanwhile, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) deputy president Eamon Carroll said: “There has been a number of people in contact over the weekend. It’s unfair to have them outside of it because they have always been outside it for everything.”

‘On the ground’

The Irish Farmers Journal spoke to Monaghan farmer Patrick Duffy, who inherited his farm at 17 years of age in 2008. He said he was in the middle of studying at Ballyhaise when he was told that the then €15,000 installation aid would no longer be available.

“I can still picture [the lecturer] came into the class that day, he put the papers down on the table and said: ‘Bad news, there’s a budget happening and there’s going to be no installation [aid]’. There was 92 of us in that class that year and I can guarantee you there’s not 10 of us today farming.

“I was never a young farmer. I was told I was farming too long when I first went looking for a grant, I was 23. It’s a disgrace that it was announced in the first place if they were never going to see it through.”

No criteria change

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said he doesn’t intend to revisit the criteria for the forgotten farmer scheme.

Speaking to Kildare IFA on Monday, he said: “There have to be criteria there, and these are the criteria that I’ve inherited.

“I’ve inherited a commitment around addressing this issue, so I’m doing that, but I suppose I don’t intend to broaden it any more than that.”

However, the minister did say that he would seek further funding if the €5m committed does not meet demand from eligible farmers: “We don’t know how many people actually qualify. That’s why we had public consultation. And now we’ve opened it up enough to applications. I’ll have to assess it and if the €5m isn’t enough to cover it, then I’ll have to go back for more.”