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It looks likely that it will be Christmas before farmers will be able to apply to the low-cost loan scheme promised to them last October in the budget.
The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) has told the IFA it will be, at the earliest, late in the back-end of 2018 before any loans are made available.
It almost certainly will be 2019 before farmers who apply can draw down any money from the scheme.
No decision appears to have been made to date as to the size of the fund. It is also unclear as to how much of the loan scheme- farmers can apply for as it is also open to SMEs with fewer than 500 employees, despite €25m being set aside as seed capital in last year’s budget.
The news comes as farmers remain under serious cashflow pressure from the difficult winter and spring, which is now being compounded by the current drought conditions.
IFA president Joe Healy said: “Now it looks like it will be a race against time to have the money available at any stage in 2018. It is a complete farce.”
Healy said the association was informed of the further delay at meeting with the SBCI last week. The IFA has now written to Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed seeking an urgent meeting to try and get the scheme up and running immediately.
IFA farm business chair Martin Stapleton said he was hugely frustrated by the delays in getting a new agri-loan package up and running.
“The late spring and the ongoing drought conditions have imposed savage costs on farmers. This is a practical measure that could give them some sort of break, yet all we see is inertia across Government departments and state agencies.”
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