The IFA raised a number of issues, all related to delivering direct payments across all the schemes on time to farmers and within the deadlines set down by the Charter of Farmers’ Rights.

IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy said that a number of important outcomes and key information for farmers came from the meeting.

  • 2019 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications opened on 7 February. To date, 9,193 applications have been received online. The Department has a helpdesk to assist farmers with any queries and will organise a series of one-to-one clinics around the country over the coming weeks to assist with applications.
  • 2018 BPS: 123,000 farmers were paid €1.173bn.
  • 2018 ANC: 94,567 farmers were paid €226.5m.
  • Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) scheme: 18,593 (10,410 online and 8,833 paper) suckler farmers have applied, with an average estimated herd size of 25 cows, totalling about 465,000 cows. The IFA called for the closing date for applications to be extended.
  • Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP): 22,864 out of 24,544 applicants have been paid €41m for 2018. The IFA called for payment to 690 inspection cases and 1,076 non-inspection cases. The IFA also called for the immediate issuing of tags for the 2019 scheme.
  • Sheep Welfare Scheme: 18,607 farmers paid €15.14m. A total of 150 outstanding cases will be paid in the next two weeks. The final tranche payment is due in the last week of April.
  • National Reserve: 913 applications under the 2018 reserve. The 2019 scheme is now open for application.
  • Young Farmers Scheme: 9,520 applications under the 2018 scheme, worth €24m. The 2019 scheme is now open.
  • Organic Scheme: 1,338 farmers paid €6.27m for the 2018 scheme.
  • GLAS: 46,649 farmers paid a total of €167m.
  • TAMS: 23,532 applications and 19,167 approved. Payment claims were submitted for 8,676 cases and 7,824 were paid €114.6m.
  • Knowledge Transfer: 17,566 farmers were paid €11.02m.
  • The IFA deputy president said the Department of Agriculture confirmed to the IFA that any land eligibility fines on Ireland would amount to no more than €1.3m per year over three years.