The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) in Northern Ireland has issued a further clarification on the administration of the young farmers’ payment (YFP) in Northern Ireland.

At the end of last week, DAERA released a statement saying that an applicant to the young farmers’ scheme will get the payment for a full five years. Up until this point, the five-year period would have been reduced, had the young farmer been farming as head of holding for a time before first submitting an application.

However, just one week later, and after receiving further information from the European Commission, the Department has clarified that the new arrangements cannot be used to make retrospective payments.

It means that applicants in 2016 or 2017 will not receive payments in these years if they were not due under the old rules.

For example, an applicant who was accepted for YFP in 2015 for a period of one year only under the previous rules, will now be able to receive YFP for 2018 and 2019 scheme years, but not for 2016 and 2017 scheme years.

Uncertainty

For applicants after 2015, while they should, in theory, receive the top-up payment for five years, there remains some uncertainty as to what happens once the UK leaves the EU in 2019.

Recognising that issue, the president of the Young Farmers Clubs of Ulster, James Speers has called for the YFP to be maintained post Brexit.

Lucrative

The scheme itself has proved to be quite lucrative, particularly for anyone with a large block of hill land. A successful applicant can go straight to the NI average of approximately €330/ha (£281/ha), with an additional young farmer top-up worth £49.90/ha in 2017. It works into a payment of around £134 per acre.

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