The Department of Agriculture circulated a message on Monday morning stating: “You have entitlement lease reversion correspondence. Please log onto agfood.ie.”

The message relates to entitlements which were leased out in 2023 and which are now reverting to the owner of the entitlements.

For farmers who cannot access their agfood.ie account, the correspondence reads: “Department records indicate that you were involved in a lease of entitlements under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme.

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"Following expiry of a lease the entitlements concerned revert to the account of the transferor/lessor.

"If you wish to renew this lease/transfer of entitlements under the 2024 scheme year, you must submit a transfer of entitlements application online via agfood.ie on or before the closing date of Wednesday 15 May 2024.

"Further details regarding the transfer of entitlements online facility and in relation to the transfer of entitlements online applications can be found on the Department's website www.gov.ie/agriculture.”

Schemes deadline

It is clear from this letter that Wednesday 15 May 2024 is likely to be the deadline for scheme applications including the Basic Income Support for Sustainability, Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability and the Eco Scheme.

The deadline in 2023 was later on 29 May 2023, but this was due to the first year of the new CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.