It has been revealed that 25% of applicants to the 2017 National Reserve are ineligible for the scheme.

In a statement, the Department said: “Some 1,300 applications were received under the National Reserve in 2017. Some 330 of these applications did not meet the eligibility criteria and were unsuccessful or were withdrawn. The Department is working with individual applicants in relation to processing remaining applications where outstanding information is required to process the application or land details are being finalised.

“Seven-hundred-and-fifty applications under the 2017 National Reserve have been cleared for payment to date, with payments of some €2.8m having been made”.

The main reason for ineligibility, according to the Department, was that 75 farmers had already benefited under the 2015 National Reserve. Under EU regulation, a farmer is only allowed to benefit once from the reserve.

A further 70 farmers did not qualify as they did not meet the educational qualifications required. For 60 applicants, their off-farm income was in excess of €40,000; hence they did not qualify for the scheme. A total of 35 farmers did not meet the entry date requirement, with the majority having commenced farming prior to 2010.

Twenty-five farmers qualified under the National Reserve, but did not have naked land or low-value entitlements on which to allocate National Reserve entitlements of top-ups. Twenty applications were also withdrawn from the scheme. Finally, a small number of cases did not submit a 2017 BPS application and therefore were ineligible.

“All of the above cases have been given an opportunity to appeal and submit further documentation in support of their appeal,” according to the Department.

Looking to 2018, there has been no definitive answer as to whether there will be a National Reserve Scheme or not.

“A decision regarding the National Reserve for 2018 will be considered following an analysis of the funding available when all eligible applicants under the 2017 National Reserve have been catered for.”

Young Farmer Scheme

A total of 9,950 applications were made through the Young Farmer Scheme (YFS) in 2017.

“Over 7,000 applications under the 2017 YFS are cleared for payment to date with payments in excess of €15m having been made,” according to the Department.

This still leaves a substantial 2,950 applicants who are yet to be paid. Delays are in part due to eligibility inspections. With a 5% inspection rate necessary, this would account for less than 500 of the overall applicants, which does not explain the remaining 2,450 applicants.