IFA president Joe Healy has called on Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to take control of the situation that has left thousands of farmers waiting for crucial farm payments for months.

Around 3,000 farmers in GLAS and its predecessor, AEOS, are awaiting payments due in 2016, with many now uncertain whether they will be eligible at all.

Hundreds more are waiting for delayed Organic Farming Scheme payments.

Payments under TAMS II are also being delayed, with software being developed to solve issues.

The Department extended the deadline to complete paperwork under the Knowledge Transfer Scheme last week after its online system crashed, preventing facilitators from entering their groups’ information.

“There have been lots of excuses about IT systems, but the Department is not run by computers,” Healy said.

Farmers are extremely angry and frustrated over the ongoing delays and slow responses when they try to contact the Department to find out why they have not been paid.

Cashflow

The IFA says its officers have been bombarded with farmers’ complaints as long payment delays hit households’ cashflow.

“Compared to other EU countries, the Department has been effective in delivering BPS and ANC payments to farmers. However, there is something seriously wrong with the administration of some other schemes,” Healy said.

He added that while these schemes should be a good news story for the Government and the EU funding them, administrative bottlenecks have caused anger and frustration.

The IFA president also raised the issue of tillage farmers who lost crops in the 2016 harvest and slammed the Department’s “total lack of urgency” in making support available to them.

“Again, it seems there is no appreciation of the desperate situation these farmers are in,” he said.

The issue has come up repeatedly in the Oireachtas. Minister Creed told the Seanad last week that the situation with GLAS was “unfortunate”.

“I am keenly aware of the need to process these cases without delay,” he said. “All of the resources that are required of my Department, both from an IT and administrative side, are being applied to that purpose.”

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