The 2025 Basic Income support for Sustainability, or BISS, opened this week for applications. Its opening was marked by the Department of Agriculture also announcing two new conditionality standards for 2025 that farmers need to be aware of when applying.

The two new conditionality standards are termed social conditionality and GAEC 2: the protection of wetland and peatland. The Department outlined that these are the final two standards to be introduced to the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and reported that it has consulted with the key stakeholders, including the CAP Strategic Plan Monitoring Committee, to develop these new conditionality standards.

Social conditionality

Social conditionality applies to every farmer receiving support under CAP. It essentially means that an additional conditionality penalty may be applied to farmers that are “found to be in breach of certain legislation relating to workplace safety, employment standards, or the safe operation of machinery in the workplace”.

The Department states that the standard will “not involve any additional checks by the Department, but will be facilitated by cross-reporting from the Workplace Relations Commission and the Health and Safety Authority of Ireland. For farmers, there are no new requirements”.

It adds that existing rules on health and safety or employment law will continue to apply as normal.

“Any beneficiary of CAP funding that is found to be non-compliant with these national rules and convicted under the relevant directives will now be cross-reported to the Department and may be subject to an additional conditionality penalty.”

The Department anticipates that the number of cross-reported cases will be very low, citing Ireland’s “very high level of compliance with these directives”.

The new GAEC 2 designation allows for existing drains to be maintained and repaired but new drains are subject to planning permission.

GAEC 2 requirements

GAEC 2: the protection of wetland and peatland, is a baseline minimum requirement introduced under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 to protect carbon-rich soils. A derogation was received by Ireland and a number of other EU member states to delay its introduction in 2023/2024 until work could be carried out to identify relevant areas. The Department states that “in Ireland, our grass-based system already provides considerable protection for such soils and they are also protected by existing national planning provisions, for example on drainage. Therefore, the introduction of this standard is expected to have minimal impact on farmers’ day-to-day operations. In practice, it is only at the point that a farmer wishes to carry out drainage, reseeding of grassland or deep ploughing that the farmer needs to check if the land parcel in question is a GAEC 2 parcel”.

The detailed on-farm requirements for GAEC 2 outlined by the Department are as follows:

  • 1. New drainage or reclamation in GAEC 2 land parcels is not permitted as a general rule. Deepening of existing drains or extension of the drained area beyond what previously existed is considered new drainage in this context. However, to ensure the agricultural area can remain active*, drainage may take place subject to national planning provisions**.
  • 2. Maintenance and repair of existing drains is allowed*.
  • 3. Deep ploughing (greater than 30cm depth), for grassland or arable crops is not permitted.
  • 4. Shallow ploughing (up to 30cm depth) may take place annually for arable crops, but for grassland rejuvenation of permanent grassland ploughing must not take place more frequently than once in every four years.
  • To ensure that on the land concerned an agricultural activity suitable for qualifying the land as agricultural area may be maintained, as per the footnote (1) relating to GAEC 2 in Annex III of Regulation 2115/2021.
  • Planning provisions in accordance with the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2023, as amended.

    • Identifying areas

    The Department advises that the mapping system on agfood can be consulted to check if the land parcel area is a GAEC 2 parcel. This functionality however is not operational at present.

    The Department states: “The GAEC 2 standard is subject to approval by the European Commission. Once approved, the Department will be writing to all affected farmers to inform them of which parcels are in scope of GAEC 2 requirements.”

    It adds that a system of appeals will also be available by which farmers can raise an appeal if they believe their parcel is not a GAEC 2 parcel, as identified on the agfood system.

    BISS applications

    The portal to submit BISS applications is now open and will close on Thursday 15 May 2025. The BISS application is also the mechanism for applying for several other area-based schemes such as the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), Eco-Scheme, Areas of Natural Constraint, Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, Protein Aid and National Reserve.

    Annual payment claims for the Straw Incorporation Measure, ACRES and the Organic Farming Scheme can also be made online, along with the Multi-species Sward Measure and the Red Clover Silage Measure.

    Entitlements deadline

    Thursday 15 May is also the deadline for transferring entitlements. The Department has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal the clawback on the sale of entitlements without lands has not been reinstated for the 2025 scheme year, as approved in the amended CSP.

    This means that in 2025, those who sell entitlements without land will continue to see the full amount transfer to the purchaser.

    The number of applications received by the Department to transfer entitlements in 2024 was recorded at 33,614 applications, a reduction of 5,380 applications on the previous year. The number of entitlements leased was recorded at 560,829.45 entitlements. This equates to an increase of 30,000 entitlements transferred by way of lease in 2024.

    With regards the awarding of entitlements under the 2024 National Reserve there were 16,715.05 entitlements awarded. There were more entitlements possibly surrendered to the National Reserve in 2024. The figure of 19,110.22 entitlements is not a final figure, as the Department explains that there are still a number of usage cases being processed in addition to the usage appeals and both of these factors will likely result in changes to the given figures.

    Key BISS dates for first half of 2025

  • 1 January 2025: Official start of the BISS 2025 scheme year.

  • 15 May (midnight) 2025: Deadline for BISS and related area-based schemes 2025 application. Deadline for BISS 2025 entitlement related applications, including the online 2025 Transfer of Entitlements application and the online application for National Reserve.

  • 31 May (midnight) 2025: Deadline for amending a BISS application area declared without receiving a penalty. Land used to claim BISS in 2025 has to be “at your disposal” from the beginning of the year until after 31 May 2025 or from before 31 May 2025 to 31 December 2025 for BISS.

  • 09 June (midnight) 2025: Late application BISS deadline.

  • 12 June (midnight) 2025: Final possible date for notification of Preliminary check.

  • 23 June (midnight) 2025: Final date for preliminary check response.