The Department of Agriculture's underspend exceeded €100m in 2017 for the second year running, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report on the accounts of public services submitted to the Dáil this Friday.
Budget 2017 allowed the Department to spend €1.5bn, but just under €1.4bn left its coffers, leaving €102m unused. The bulk of savings was on funds intended for payments to farmers under rural development schemes, which came €80m under budget.
TAMS II payments were €20m lower than expected as three quarters of participants had not yet claimed grants at the end of last year.There was a €18m underspend on GLAS because of a combination of late training "due to IT systems not being in place", only 76% of applicants achieving compliance instead of the expected 85% and fewer farmers qualifying for GLAS+ than expected.Delays in the Knowledge Transfer scheme and low numbers of qualifying farmers left €12m unpaid – nearly half the funds earmarked for the scheme last year.The Sheep Welfare Scheme spent €9m less than planned in its first year, because of "lower numbers of farmers applied to participate in the scheme than was anticipated".BDGP showed an underspend of €5m, forestry schemes €10m, organics €2m and locally led schemes a combined €4m.Only ANC payments were higher than expected (by €3m), while delayed AEOS payments from previous years added €5m to 2017 spending.
Other unforeseen expenditure included €600,000 for the crop loss scheme supporting areas hit by last year's bad harvest and for flooding compensation in Co Donegal, and €6m in additional Brexit funding for Bord Bia.
Largest surplus
The Department again had the largest gross surplus of any Government agency, after underspending by €106m in 2016. However, an €84m payment due from the EU in December 2017 came late in January 2018. This meant the Department's net surplus was artificially reduced to €24m and it was able to retain those funds for use this year, instead of returning them to the Exchequer as was the case after 2016.
Despite successive underspends on rural development schemes, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has made repeated public assurances that all budgets would be spent as part of the current CAP, which ends in 2020. Last March, he said those schemes may in fact run a €300m overspend once all participants are fully paid.
Read more
TAMS funding will be ‘fully spent’
Sheep Welfare Scheme underspend allocated to fodder
Some TAMS money may go unspent
The Department of Agriculture's underspend exceeded €100m in 2017 for the second year running, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report on the accounts of public services submitted to the Dáil this Friday.
Budget 2017 allowed the Department to spend €1.5bn, but just under €1.4bn left its coffers, leaving €102m unused. The bulk of savings was on funds intended for payments to farmers under rural development schemes, which came €80m under budget.
TAMS II payments were €20m lower than expected as three quarters of participants had not yet claimed grants at the end of last year.There was a €18m underspend on GLAS because of a combination of late training "due to IT systems not being in place", only 76% of applicants achieving compliance instead of the expected 85% and fewer farmers qualifying for GLAS+ than expected.Delays in the Knowledge Transfer scheme and low numbers of qualifying farmers left €12m unpaid – nearly half the funds earmarked for the scheme last year.The Sheep Welfare Scheme spent €9m less than planned in its first year, because of "lower numbers of farmers applied to participate in the scheme than was anticipated".BDGP showed an underspend of €5m, forestry schemes €10m, organics €2m and locally led schemes a combined €4m.Only ANC payments were higher than expected (by €3m), while delayed AEOS payments from previous years added €5m to 2017 spending.
Other unforeseen expenditure included €600,000 for the crop loss scheme supporting areas hit by last year's bad harvest and for flooding compensation in Co Donegal, and €6m in additional Brexit funding for Bord Bia.
Largest surplus
The Department again had the largest gross surplus of any Government agency, after underspending by €106m in 2016. However, an €84m payment due from the EU in December 2017 came late in January 2018. This meant the Department's net surplus was artificially reduced to €24m and it was able to retain those funds for use this year, instead of returning them to the Exchequer as was the case after 2016.
Despite successive underspends on rural development schemes, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has made repeated public assurances that all budgets would be spent as part of the current CAP, which ends in 2020. Last March, he said those schemes may in fact run a €300m overspend once all participants are fully paid.
Read more
TAMS funding will be ‘fully spent’
Sheep Welfare Scheme underspend allocated to fodder
Some TAMS money may go unspent
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