Teagasc received more than €6.6m in CAP payments last year, making it the single largest corporate recipient listed for 2016. So, where did that money go?

Firstly, Teagasc is a major landowner, owning and leasing 5,440 ac of land.

It collected three separate farm payments amounting to €114,000 in Cork. In Fermoy, Teagasc’s two farms at Moorepark and Curtins took in €45,223, while the leased farm at Kilworth received €30,388. In west Cork, the direct farm payment to Clonakilty was €39,118.

In Co Meath, the direct payment for the farm at Grange was €120,083.

In Co Carlow, the farm at Oak Park received almost €97,000, while in Co Wexford, Johnstown Castle received almost €63,000.

In Co Kilkenny, the direct farm payment amounted to €50,230, while in Co Tipperary, the research farm at Solohead received €14,794.

Ballyhaise took in €50,725 in direct farm payments, while there were two separate farm payments in Co Galway, amounting to €43,806 and €12,153 respectively. As well as direct farm payments, Teagasc also received CAP funding under other headings such as improving the environment and countryside and specific support direct aid.

Six payments under the improving environment and countryside heading ranged from €456 (Kildalton, Co Kilkenny) to €18,363 (Grange, Co Meath).

However, a much larger payment of more than €6m was paid to Teagasc’s Athenry campus last year, which boosted Teagasc’s total to the top of the corporate CAP beneficiary list.

Some €6.045m was issued to Teagasc, of which €4m was related to the Beef Data Genomics Programme.

A spokesman for Teagasc told the Irish Farmers Journal: “Teagasc competed for, and were successful in a public tender process to provide training to farmers participating in the Beef Data Genomics Programme, (BDGP). This is a national programme run by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

“As part of the contract, Teagasc received circa €4m from DAFM, which was paid by Teagasc to over 24,200 farmer participants in BDGP at the rate of €166 per farmer who completed their training.”

He continued: “The remaining €2.3m was paid to Teagasc by DAFM for the delivery of the training courses and facilitating the payments to the farmer participants.”

Read more

Five organisations share €15m in CAP money

Top 10 recipients of CAP payments revealed