The change in payment rates under the new Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), which replaces the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027, are well documented.

Much confusion remains, however, regarding the new payment regime and in particular establishing the level of payment a BISS applicant stands to receive over the next five years.

The value of a BPS entitlement in 2022 is the starting point for determining the value of entitlements under the BISS. The entitlement unit value has been subject to deductions to fund the eco scheme (25%), complementary redistributive income support for sustainability (CRISS-10%) and Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF – 3%). The remaining 62% is then subject to a deduction (3%) to fund the National Reserve and convergence.

Agfood.ie portal

A number of farmers have made enquiries in recent weeks asking how they can access a statement detailing the value of their entitlements. This information is available on every applicant’s agfood.ie account. From the homepage, select the BISS heading.

From here there are three options to access BISS values. At the left of the screen there is a link called “entitlement position”; there is a similar link when you scroll down to the webpage on the right-hand side. This details the unit value of entitlements you possess.

The correspondence link at the top right of the screen will also give access to a statement of entitlements which can be downloaded for printing. This is a suitable statement to confirm payment rates for financial institutions considering loan applications.

However, this statement does not take account of payments under the eco scheme or CRISS. The eco-scheme payment will be influenced by the level of participation and is predicted to be in the region of €65/ha, while the CRISS payment is expected to be €43.15/ha up to a maximum payment area of 30ha.

The Department’s CAP calculator, which can be easily found by searching in a web browser for “DAFM CAP Calculator”, can be used to calculate an estimate of the annual payment rate taking in to account the eco scheme and CRISS.