The Department has been urged to deliver on the promise of 70% advanced payments to farmers under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) from Monday week (17 October) by paying as many farmers as possible on the first day.

Speaking at the Farmers’ Charter of Rights Monitoring Committee meeting in Portlaoise on Thursday, IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy said that this should be done given that 100,700 applications were made online and that pre-checking of files took place in June this year.

Kennedy told chair Sean Brady that all payments must be made within charter deadlines. These are advanced payments to 100% of cleared cases and 90% of all applicants by 16 October and a target of balanced payments made to 100% of applicants by 1 December.

The Department’s service to respond to queries was also raised with Kennedy stating that the telephone service needs to improve. Under the charter, calls are to be returned within 24 hours with issues identified and resolved quickly.

The second year of the new CAP scheme should mean that problems related to IT, digitisation, partnerships and entitlements cannot be used as an excuse for delays, Kennedy said.

On GLAS, he reminded Brady that the charter states that an 85% advance payment must be made to 38,000 farmers from the end of October.

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