Applications under the 2026 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes have ramped up in the final 10 days before the deadline of 11.59pm on Friday 15 May.
A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture told the Irish Farmers Journal that the number of BISS applications submitted stood at 107,210 as of 11 May 2026.
This included over 3,600 applications submitted on that day alone with 15,000 applications submitted in the previous six days.
The number of applications is running about 500 applications ahead of the corresponding period in 2025 with advisers and farmers on target to submit in the region of upwards of 123,500 based on the 2025 application figures.
Some 94,899 applications have been submitted by agents with 12,311 applications submitted by farmers.
There has also been 101,827 applications to the areas of natural constraints and 104,628 applications for the Eco Scheme.
The Department of Agriculture is continuing to operate extended opening hours to assist farmers.
Its helpdesk, which can be contacted on 057-8674422, is open between 9.15am and 9pm on Thursday, 14 May and between 9.15am and 12 midnight on Friday, 15 May.
This excludes closing times for lunch from 12.45pm to 2pm on all dates.
In addition Department of Agriculture personnel will also be available to assist farmers at the public counter in the Department of Agriculture public counter in Portlaoise.
In-person consultations will be available until half an hour before closing time on each of the days listed above.
Livestock schemes
It is also important to highlight that the BISS application is the application for a number of area-based schemes including the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme, the Organic Farming Scheme, the Protein Aid Scheme etc.
The deadline for applications in the 2026 National Sheep Welfare Scheme, the 2026 Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme and the CSP Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme is also May 15.
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