Over €550m of the balance of Single Farm Payment (SFP) will start to go out to 120,000 farmers, the Minister for Agriculture has confirmed.

As reported last week, payments will be issued from next Monday, 1 December. Minister Simon Coveney confirmed that the money will be landing in bank accounts early next week.

The Minister urged farmers to respond to outstanding queries as soon as possible and said regular payment runs will continue to be made on a twice-weekly basis.

The balance of payments next week will bring the total value of payments made to date under the 2014 SFP to over €1.1bn, while payments under the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme have exceeded €185m.

Farmers can also expect to see payments under AOES and REPS as well as the Grassland Sheep Scheme start to flow after next week, all providing a welcome boost to cashflow.

Another bit of good news this week is that Irish farmers will get €27.2m back from the EU. In total, €868m is to be reimbursed to EU farmers. This 2.45% cut was originally deducted from farmers whose direct payments were over €2,000 in 2013.

The news came too late for the Department to include this payment in the balance of payment, but farmers should get the money in early 2015.