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Some 6,300 farmers are still waiting for money that was due in December 2016 under the Green Low Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).
“It is getting beyond a joke,” said Hackett. “When you hear stories of farmers having to sell off winter fodder to make ends meet, it is a shocking situation.”
The spokeswoman added that Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed “should be ashamed of himself to have allowed this to happen. He knows only too well the continual cashflow problems faced by many farmers, and this delay in payments is unacceptable. To have been promised this funding in December, and to wait this excessive amount of time is just unfair.”
The spokeswoman added that if pensions or social welfare payments were delayed for even a week there would be uproar.
“Many of our cash-strapped farmers rely on these funds in much the same way.”
No promises
In an exclusive interview in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal, Minister Creed said he could not make any promises on when the rest of the money would be paid out.
Hackett said he “seemed oblivious to what is going on in his department”.
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with him – he is the minister, he is responsible,” she said. “The Green Party are fully supportive of quality environmental schemes such as GLAS, but incompetence like this may deter farmers from subscribing to similar schemes in the future, and this would be a step backwards for our environment, our biodiversity and our farming future.
“We need answers from Minister Creed as to how and why this occurred and assurance that this fiasco will not happen again with future scheme payments.”
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