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Roscommon beef farmer Trevor Kelly has said he has lost out on more than €80,000 as a result of being a “forgotten farmer”.
Forgotten farmers are farmers who are younger than 40, farming for more than five years and cannot access the National Reserve or Young Farmer Scheme as a result of the reference years 2003-2008.
Investment
Kelly told the Irish Farmers Journal he has invested over €300,000 in land and sheds in Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
“I have a Green Cert and it’s worth nothing to me. It cost me a lot of money and two years of my time,” he said.
“The lads and girls I did the Green Cert with, they were all able to get a 60% TAMS grant. I could only get a 40% grant.
“There’s a batch of farmers there that fell through the cracks, we got left out in the last CAP.
“Our Government can go and take a linear cut to the Basic Payment Scheme [to fund forgotten farmers].
“We should be the first ones to be looked after. Anyone farming between 2003 and 2008 never got anything,” Kelly pointed out.
“The Government is all the time saying it wants more young farmers, but they can’t do anything for us,” he said.
He said the Programme for Government said that forgotten farmers would be looked after.
“They should put their money where their mouth is,” he insisted.
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