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Approximately 1,200 young and new farmers have missed out on supports under the Young Farmer Scheme (YFS) and national reserve in 2019.
To date, 8,250 applications to the YFS have been successful, while 950 applications have been withdrawn or rejected. A total of 95 young farmers have appealed their rejection from the scheme.
The rate of rejection from the national reserve, which provides supports to new entrants, is much higher. Just 500 applications have been approved to date, while 250 have been rejected. Forty-eight of those have appealed the Department of Agriculture’s decision.
Payments
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed revealed the payments made across all counties in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Charlie McConalogue.
There are no advance payments under either scheme and full payment was made in December, coinciding with the balancing BPS payment.
In total, €17.4m has been issued to young farmers, with new entrants receiving €2.1m.
Unsurprisingly, young farmers in Cork received the most YFS money. There were 1,183 applications for support and in excess of €2.2m has been issued. Excluding Dublin, Louth received the least amount of funding at €183,576.
The western seaboard has seen an influx of new money from the national reserve. Galway farmers received the most at €211,671, while over half a million euro flowed to farmers in Donegal, Mayo and Kerry.
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