Figures obtained from DAERA indicate that, to date, 42% of new applications to the young farmers’ payment in 2016, which have been assessed by officials, have been rejected.

A DAERA spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal this week that of the 773 new applications to the young farmers’ payment in 2016, 322 applications are still being assessed by officials, and 191 have been turned down.

A reason for the significant amount of ineligible applications appears to be regarding the written agreements required if a young farmer is in partnership in the farm business.

Speaking at the Assembly’s agriculture committee in November, Brian Doherty from DAERA said that of the 189 applications that were rejected at the time, 160 were due to issues with partnership agreements.

“For 73 of those, no partnership agreement at all was provided. The other 87 were rejected because, although the partnership agreement had been provided, there were maybe some deficiencies with it,” he said.

DAERA officials maintained that there have been issues with clauses in agreements that allow for the partnership to end without the consent of all partners, as well as clauses that restrict the young farmer from trading without consent from all partners.

In 2016, signed agreements were required with new applications that involved any type of partnership. They must state that the young farmer has long-term control in the business and can make decision without veto from other partners in the business.

Signed agreement

However, in 2015, a signed agreement for partnerships was optional and only had to include a line stating that partners could make decisions without veto if the young farmer had a 50% stake in the business.

DAERA provided 12 points that had to be included in agreements with new applications in 2016. Reports suggest that there has been a range of agreements submitted, from detailed contracts drawn up by solicitors to no agreement provided at all. The agreement could be written by the partners themselves if the 12 points are covered, but officials will not accept amendments to agreements at this stage.

“If we start accepting information that should have been provided by the closing date for applications, we open up a very large area not just of accepting more information but of people wanting to change, withdraw and add information,” Mark McLean from DAERA told MLAs at the committee meeting at Stormont.

Another issue is that not all persons named on the farm business ID have signed the agreement with a DAERA spokesperson confirming this week that 49 applications have been rejected for this reason. This could be where a farmer’s wife is not a financial stakeholder in the business but is named on a business ID and has not signed the partnership agreement.