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Under the 2017 Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme, a total of 98,012 applications were received by the end of August, the Minister for Agriculture has said in response to a parliamentary question from Cavan-Monaghan TD Niamh Smyth.
Counties along the western seaboard have the highest number of applications.
The top five counties with applications under the ANC scheme are:
The Minister also outlined a county-by-county breakdown of the ANC applications.
This week, payments under the ANC scheme began, with more than €160m reaching the bank accounts of 75,000 farmers.
ANC payments are the first of a series of crucial cash injections due to farmers this autumn.
This week’s payment run is an increase of €20m and 10,000 farmers on the first tranche of ANC payments last year. This is due to an increase in online applications by farmers.
In line with previous years, not all applications are currently cleared for payment under the scheme.
The remaining farmers have until 31 December to satisfy the annual average stocking density of 0.15 livestock units per forage hectare.
Such cases can only be cleared for payment once this requirement has been confirmed.
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