In June of 2015, a charter of farmers’ rights was developed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to outline to farmers what they can expect during an inspection. It also outlined the payment dates for different schemes. A lot is said about the rate of payments that the Department makes throughout the year. Here, William Conlon looks in-depth at how the Department has performed over the past 12 months

Positives

Basic Payment Scheme

The largest payment to go out to farmers is the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payment. The charter outlines that for advance payments, 100% of all cleared cases and 90% of all applications are to be paid on 16 October, with a target to pay 100% of balancing payments on 1 December.

Seventy per cent advance payments began to 111,111 out of 123,284 eligible farmers on 19 October, with over €700m being issued to farmers. This works out at 90% of farmers, which is in line with the targets set.

Balancing payments did not begin until 7 December, with the remaining 30% payment being issued to farmers.

Based on 22 December figures from the Department, a total of 122,372 farmers have now received BPS payments to the total value of €1.143m. However, this figure also includes Young Farmer Scheme (YFS) and National Reserve payments. This equates to approximately 99% of eligible farmers having been paid.

Young Farmer Scheme (YFS) and National Reserve

YFS and National Reserve payments began to farmers between 4 and 8 December. A total of 9,950 applications were made through the YFS in 2017. As of 21 December, over 7,000 of these applicants have been cleared for payment according to the Department, with payments in excess of €15m being made.

The charter has a target date of 1 December to issue complete payment to all applicants. However, as of 21 December, only 70% of applicants had been paid.

National Reserve payments were also issued between 4 and 8 December. As of 21 December, of the 970 eligible applicants who applied for the scheme, payment had issued to 750 or 77% of applicants. A total of €2.8m has been paid out under the scheme.

The Department has missed the target of having all farmers paid by 1 December, as outlined in the charter. However, payments did begin on time.

ANC

Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments began to issue to farmers on 19 September, in line with the target to have full payment issued to farmers in the third week of September, in respect of clear cases.

Over €160m was paid to more than 75,000 farmers under the scheme. This was an improvement on 2016, when €140m was paid out to 65,000 farmers in the first tranche of payments.

In total, almost €197.8m has issued to 92,106 farmers as of 22 December. However, 2,815 of these farmers have only received payment since 24 November.

Some of these payments were delayed until farmers fulfilled their stocking density requirements to be eligible for the scheme.

BDGP and SWS

Payments under the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) were due to issue in mid-December according to the charter and with payments issuing on 14 December, the Department hit this target.

Payments began to 21,000 farmers who have verified their compliance with the 2017 requirements. These payments will be worth €37m to Irish farmers.

As of 15 December, a total of €21.7m had been paid to 11,230 farmers in BDGP I. A second round of payments followed, with a further 10,065 farmers from BDGP I and II receiving payments up to 22 December. Total payments under the scheme stand at €38.2m.

Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS) payments have also issued to farmers on time. As of 15 December, just shy of €16m had issued to 20,986 farmers in the scheme.

The remaining 15% balancing payment is due to issue in early 2018. However, an exact date has yet to be confirmed.

Negatives

GLAS

As in previous years, Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) payments continued to be a massive issue for the Department.

The charter outlines that 75% advance payments are to commence to farmers in the third week of October. However, the Department is paying 85% advance payments to farmers instead.

However, payments did not begin for the scheme until 29 November, almost six weeks after the target.

A total of €90m was paid out to farmers in the first week of payments.

As revealed in the Irish Farmers Journal on 7 December, 10,000 farmers out of approximately 50,500 farmers in the scheme were ineligible for advance payments due to a range of issues, including non-submission of commonage management plans, nutrient management plans, rare breed forms and low emission slurry spreading declaration forms. There were also issues reported in relation to BPS maps.

According to Department figures as of 21 December, 36,000 GLAS participants have received 2017 advance payments to the total value of €124m.

This means that approximately 14,500 farmers, or 29% of all GLAS participants, were yet to receive their 85% advance GLAS payments. Figures show that on 22 December this had increased to €133.7m.

The charter sets a target of mid-December to issue balancing payments, normally when inspections are completed.

Balancing payments in respect of 2016 did not begin to issue until mid-July 2017.

The first tranche of these balancing payments issued to 10,000 farmers in GLAS I and II, with €10m being paid out by the Department.

As of 27 July 2017, only 20,376 farmers had submitted their NMP out of 36,700 farmers in GLAS I and II. This was the main reason holding up the balancing payment.

A further €3.2m in balancing payments was issued to farmers in the last two weeks of August as NMPs were submitted by 4,000 farmers.

As of the beginning of December, there were still 3,400 farmers who had not received their 2016 GLAS balancing payments. Again, the main issue continued to be the non-submission of NMPs. Total 2016 GLAS payments made to eligible farmers as of 22 December was €154.3m, with €1.2m being paid in the last week.

GLAS training payments have also been a large bone of contention for farmers and advisers in the past few months.

Payments to farmers who had completed the training have totaled €3.1m up to 22 December. This would equate to a total of 19,620 farmers having received their €158 payment.

A further 9,380 farmers have also completed the course, but are yet to receive payment.

Advisers have been told that they will not receive their payments for running the courses until at least mid-January. Advisers are due €80 per participant in a course.

Organic Farming Scheme

Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) payments have also been an issue for farmers. 2016 payments have only just completed to farmers in the scheme.

In a statement to the IFA on 19 December, the Department said that 2017 advance payments will begin immediately. Up to 22 December, a total of 1,642 farmers had received €3.9m in OFS payments. The remaining 15% payment will be made to those not in GLAS in early 2018, with the remainder to be paid when inspections are completed for GLAS in March or April.

The charter outlines that advance payments are due to begin in the third week of October, so the Department is two months behind this target. Balancing payments were due to commence in mid-December also.