According to Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed, some 1,566 farmers are awaiting their ANC payment due to over-claiming eligible land.

Therefore, these cases require the application of the new yellow card penalty regime.

Whereas clarification in relation to the implementation of the new yellow card system for the basic payment scheme (BPS) was received at an early date, clarification on the implementation of the new penalty regime under ANC was only recently received from the commission, according to the minister.

These cases have been prioritised for clearance

“My department is now making the necessary changes to the computerised payment procedure to allow further processing of these cases,” he said in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s agriculture spokesman Charlie McConalogue.

He added that these cases have been “prioritised for clearance”. There are no cases under the BPS that are awaiting processing due to the implementation of the new yellow card rules.

Payments so far

Payment under the ANC scheme commenced on the third week of September and, to date, some 87,038 applicants have received in excess of €188m.

It is estimated that around 9,000 farmers are still awaiting payment. While 1,566 of these 9,000 cases are linked to area over-claim, a significant percentage of the delayed cases are linked to inadequate stocking rates on farms.

See the map below for a county-by-county breakdown of yellow card ANC cases

Presenting to the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee last week, a representative from the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) said that inspections should not hold up payment.

"Inspections on declared reference areas need to be concluded by mid-August with farmers notified of any problems by mid-September as required under the Charter of Rights for Farmers," he said.

"Why can this not happen," he asked, "and why as our state legislators can you not insist that this does happen?"

The representative added that the INHFA would like to see the Department pay out on any reference area not in dispute.

"Why this has not happened we do not know," he said.

Read more

Yellow card system in place for BPS inspections