Acting Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has thrown some light on why some farmers have yet to receive their Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Green-Low Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) payment.

In answer to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry on why some farmers have yet to be paid, Coveney said “only valid applications under the BPS that fully comply with the requirements of the EU legislation” have been paid.

According to the minister, there are “very small numbers of applications” that have yet to be processed for payment.

“As outstanding cases are processed and are cleared of any outstanding error, they will be sent for payment,” he said.

Coveney added that his Department is “prioritising the processing of all outstanding cases with regular payment runs continuing over the coming weeks”.

To date, 125,631 out of 126,000 farmers have received payments, totalling €1.144bn under the BPS and Greening. This means 99% of payments have been made.

The minister also highlighted that “Ireland is among the earliest to pay the BPS/Greening payment in the European Union”, with payments commencing on 16 October 2015.

GLAS

As for GLAS, there are a number of applications which have not yet passed all of the Department’s pre-payment validation checks for the 2015 part-year payment. Coveney said his Department is continuing to investigate these issues, including the correction of any IT or data issues. He added that these farmers will be paid the full amount of their 2015 part-year payment when the 2015 GLAS balancing payment issues.

To date, 21,000 GLAS Tranche 1 farmers have received a first instalment of their 2015 part-year payment in respect of payable actions for the period 1 October to 31 December, representing up to 85% of the total amount due for the 2015 part-year.

Coveney: 99% of 2015 BPS applicants have been paid

Acting Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has clarified why some farmers are still experiencing delays in relation to their BPS and GLAS payments.