The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has claimed that a cohort of the ‘forgotten farmers’ will not be catered for under the new Long Established Young Farmers scheme.
The scheme was announced on Tuesday with funding of €5m to pay a maximum of €5,000 per farmer, but the payment rate will ultimately be determined by the number of successful applications.
Farmers must have been established in their own right before 2007, have been born no earlier than 1975 and have submitted a Basic Payment Scheme application in 2015, as well as having applied for Basic Income Support for Sustainability this year, to qualify for payment.
However, ICMSA deputy president Eamon Carroll said these and other criteria leave eligibility for payment too narrow for some forgotten farmers.
“This initiative is a long time coming and will be appreciated by those who qualify,” Carroll commented.
Criteria
“However, the eligibility criteria are disappointingly narrow and there will be many obviously deserving cases that will not qualify, as presently set out.”
The 2007 date by which a farmer would have to have been operating in their own right is a cause of particular concern for the association, which the association maintains could exclude many farmers otherwise eligible who are into their late 40s or 50s.
“These were people who began farming during a period of economic hardship and who had limited access to any kind of young farmer supports,” Carroll continued.
The farming organisation’s deputy president urged Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to revisit the scheme’s terms to extend eligibility to the groups referred to.
Read more
€5m budget for ‘Forgotten Farmers’ payment
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has claimed that a cohort of the ‘forgotten farmers’ will not be catered for under the new Long Established Young Farmers scheme.
The scheme was announced on Tuesday with funding of €5m to pay a maximum of €5,000 per farmer, but the payment rate will ultimately be determined by the number of successful applications.
Farmers must have been established in their own right before 2007, have been born no earlier than 1975 and have submitted a Basic Payment Scheme application in 2015, as well as having applied for Basic Income Support for Sustainability this year, to qualify for payment.
However, ICMSA deputy president Eamon Carroll said these and other criteria leave eligibility for payment too narrow for some forgotten farmers.
“This initiative is a long time coming and will be appreciated by those who qualify,” Carroll commented.
Criteria
“However, the eligibility criteria are disappointingly narrow and there will be many obviously deserving cases that will not qualify, as presently set out.”
The 2007 date by which a farmer would have to have been operating in their own right is a cause of particular concern for the association, which the association maintains could exclude many farmers otherwise eligible who are into their late 40s or 50s.
“These were people who began farming during a period of economic hardship and who had limited access to any kind of young farmer supports,” Carroll continued.
The farming organisation’s deputy president urged Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon to revisit the scheme’s terms to extend eligibility to the groups referred to.
Read more
€5m budget for ‘Forgotten Farmers’ payment
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