Monday 16 May is the deadline for the 2016 Basic Payment Application. It is also the date for many of the area-based schemes such as the Area of Natural Constraint and Organic. It is normally on 15 May but that date falls on a Sunday this year.

The deadline of application was extended in 2015 but with the new CAP system bedded down, this is not going to happen in 2016. The Department normally launches the online application in mid to late February, with paper applications going out in mid March. The focus this year will be getting applications in earlier, with a further push to increase online applications. This would facilitate the preliminary checks of applications that were flagged by European Commissioner Phil Hogan under simplification.

Transfer window opens

The transfer of entitlement forms along with the terms and conditions have been published on the Department of Agriculture website, www.agriculture.ie. The form is to be used for those receiving entitlements by inheritance or gift, sale/purchase and also where entitlements are lease or rented with land and for the first time without land. The leased/rented entitlements revert to the owner following expiry of the lease/rental agreement, which is not considered a form of transfer.

Where entitlements are sold without land, it clearly states that they are subject to a clawback of 50% of the number of entitlements sold. To be considered as a sale of entitlements with land, 1ha must be sold per entitlement. This clawback will undoubtedly push more farmers into leasing entitlements without land in 2016 in the hope that the clawback will be reduced in subsequent years. Agents are reporting strong demand for entitlements already from farmers with more hectares than they have entitlements.

Interestingly, the terms and conditions also state that farmers who received entitlements from the National Reserve will be allowed to lease or sell them once they have relevant educational qualification used to support the 2015 National Reserve application completed.

In the case of inheritance, entitlements cannot be transferred by lease from the name of a deceased person. The rightful beneficiary should first inherit the entitlements and may then subsequently transfer them to a third party.

The form is also used for division of Entitlements (scission), merger of two or more holdings/partnership and change of legal entity, ie where farmers are forming a company. The other area which caught many farmers out in 2016 was where there was a change of registration details of the herd number. Entitlements do not transfer automatically with the herd number so this form has to be used. For example, let’s say the BPS entitlements were established in the name of John Green. John’s son David is added to the herd number in late 2015 so that it is now in the names of “John and David Green”. The entitlements remain in the name of John Green. It is necessary therefore to submit an application to change the registration details of the entitlements into the names of “John and David Green”. John Green must sign the application as transferor and John and David Green must sign the application as transferees.

Entitlements may only be transferred to a person who holds a herd number or a BPS Transfer Number. The transferor and transferee will be notified in writing when the transfer has been processed. Request for withdrawal will not be accepted unless authorised by the transferor and transferee. However, it is not possible to reverse a transfer after processing has been completed and parties notified. Over the last few years, there has been a focus on ensuring the farmers/owner of entitlements are actually present to be witnessed by a solicitor, member of Teagasc or an agricultural consultant.

The deadline for application is Monday 16 May, the same date as the BPS deadline.

Another 500 paid BPS

Just over 500 more farmers were relieved to get their BPS payment this week. By last Friday, the number paid had risen to 122,291, and over the weekend an additional 210 farmers were cleared, bringing the total up to 122,495.

With 124,500 farmers in total to be paid, it will take another three to four weeks to clear all payments at this rate. However, every year there are around 1,000 very difficult cases that take time to process. Payments under National Reserve and young farmer top-up have risen to 6,700. Close to 1,000 payments continue to be held up due farmers not returning the correct information asked for.