Private agricultural consultants have raised concerns that payments to farmers for completing their GLAS training course could be delayed.

It is understood the Department has told approved GLAS trainers that it will be mid-November at the earliest before they will receive payment for any GLAS training courses carried out.

Trainers will be required to transfer the payment to those farmers who have participated in the scheme. The GLAS-approved trainer must ensure monies owed to participants are paid within 60 days of receiving payment from the DAFM.

“It is looking like it could be after Christmas before any private advisers will be able to pay participants. It is a case of once again being told that it is an IT problem within the Department,” one adviser said.

“We have also had issues where a farmer has had to cancel a training course that he had intended to go on for legitimate reasons. Now we are having issues reassigning these farmers to courses, another example of the IT system that exists in the Department.”

Under GLAS I and II, farmers are required to attend a six-hour training course before 31 December 2017. Advisers facilitating the course will receive €60 per participant, while farmers attending the course are in line to receive €158.

Clear-up on CMPs

The deadline to submit commonage management plans (CMP) is 31 October 2017. With the facility to submit these plans only going live in mid-October, advisers were given little over two weeks to submit a total of 3,800 CMPs, which encompasses over 9,000 farmers.

The Department has issued a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, stating: “CMPs must be submitted before 2017 advance payments can issue and a target date of 31 October has been set for the submission of these plans.

“Just to clarify, that this is a target date for submission and that CMPs submitted after this date before the end of the year will continue to be processed for payment, although they may not be included in the first 2017 advance payment pay run.”

With delayed payments likely, advisers feel the pressure is once again being put on them to act as the middle man for issues relating to IT systems within the Department.