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With the announcement of a 2021 National Reserve, the Department of Agriculture must ensure that only genuine cases receive an allocation from the fund, ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe has said.
The comments came following a meeting of the ICMSA with the Department of Agriculture, with McCabe reporting that the 2021 scheme is expected to retain the same basic terms and conditions as before.
McCabe said: “This means that the off-farm income limits, age and set-up requirements remain in place.
"The fund will be close to €6m allocated for the two-year transition, which is similar to previous years.
“Funding will come from a once-off allocation of unused funds committed to previous young farmer schemes and the 20% clawback from sales and the non-use of entitlements for two years.”
Erosion of value
Meanwhile, convergence will not apply for the next 12 months, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has confirmed.
McCabe warns that there will be a linear cut of just over 2% on all direct payment for 2021 due to the reduced budget contribution from the multiannual financial framework (MFF) budget.
“Government should make good this 2% cut either through utilising unused funds under the BPS or, if necessary, through an allocation from the national exchequer.
“For too long, these kinds of small percentage cuts have been made to farmers' payments and over time it has led to very significant erosion of value and effectiveness.”
The ICMSA has said that the Department is making similar arrangements for BPS submission procedures in 2021 as those operated in 2020 due to the on-going pandemic.
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