Details of direct payments to all farmers will once again be publicly available by the end of this week.

The Department of Agriculture confirmed on Wednesday that it intends to comply with an EU requirement to publish details of payments made to all recipients of direct payments in 2014 by the end-of-month deadline.

This will include the Single Farm Payment scheme, the Disadvantaged Area Scheme, the Sheep Grassland Scheme, TAMS and Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 payments.

“Work on developing the CAP beneficiary database is ongoing at the Department and it is proposed to publish the required information no later than 31 May 2015,” said a Department spokesperson.

It means that by Sunday evening, the Department website will contain detailed information about each recipient. The consolation for farmers is that the information of a recipient’s location will be less specific than before.

Previously, compulsory publication of payments was introduced following the Health Check in 2008. It identified farmers by name and townland address. The system was successfully legally challenged by German farmers and has been restricted since 2011 to only detailing payments made to limited companies.

This time around, farmers will be identified by name and municipal district. These are the regions that the country is now divided into for the purpose of local elections and came into being after last year’s local elections.

These do not largely differ from Local Electoral Areas. For example, there are two in Carlow, three in Monaghan and Laois, and four in Clare. Co Galway has five.

Farmers angry

IFA president Eddie Downey said farmers are extremely angry that the Minister for Agriculture and the EU Commission intend to breach confidentiality by publishing individual CAP payments.

“Minister Coveney must challenge this unacceptable and unnecessary infringement at every level,” said Downey. “IFA has strong objections on the grounds of confidentiality, lack of proportionality and the security threat involved for farmers,” he added.

Meanwhile, farm organisations are meeting with the Department of Agriculture tomorrow, with a view to finalising the charter of farmers’ rights. It, like the publication of payments, will soon be overdue.