Nearly 80% of the four million calves registered were paid a total of €156m over the five years of the Suckler Cow Welfare Scheme (SCWS), the Department of Agriculture has revealed.

The scheme, which was launched in 2008, saw one million calves registered by beef farmers for the €80 payment. The numbers fell by 20% from 2009 onwards, when the payment was cut by €40 per calf.

The figures show that 22% of calves registered did not receive a payment each year as they failed to comply with the scheme requirements. It means that payments were made for just over 3.1m calves over the five years of the scheme.

The Department continues to make payments as cases are cleared. Last week, €250,000 was paid out for over 5,500 weanlings that were born as far back as 2008. €2m was set aside in the Department budget this year to enable payments to be made in residual cases which were the subject of appeal.

Payments will continue to be made in cases where the appeal has been successful.