IFA livestock chair Brendan Golden has said all monies that have been deducted from farmers must be repaid immediately.

Golden met with senior officials from the Department of Agriculture and has sought immediate changes to their approach of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) scheme.

Golden commented: “The handling of the scheme from the start has been a bureaucratic disaster.

“The latest move by the Department has infuriated farmers,” he said. “The letter of apology must be accompanied by a cheque.”

Extended repayment period

The livestock chair said farmers have to be given the option of an extended repayment period and he said that the interest charge has to be removed.

“Farmers who had opted for the new reference period must be allowed choose the better of the two reference periods at the end of the scheme.

“The Department and Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue can recover some ground here by doing the right thing, even at this late stage, by maximising the flexibilities secured by the Minister from the Commission earlier this year,” he insisted.

“The farmers who had monies taken from them by the Department of Agriculture are suckler and beef farmers.

Vulnerable

“They are the most vulnerable sectors in the country and most dependent on direct payments for their income, farming in ANC areas,” Golden said.

“It’s not acceptable that ANC money was taken from farmers, who would have earmarked this for contractors’ bills and school and college fees,” he added.

The livestock chair said that farmers who could not meet the conditions understood the implications and he insisted that there was no excuse for the way the Department dealt with the issue.

Golden was adamant that the 5% reduction should never have been part of the scheme.