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During the meeting, Department officials disclosed to the INHFA that 389 commonages have still not been assigned a planner/adviser in order to complete their Commonage Management Plan (CMP) under GLAS II.
Commonage farmers are required to submit their plans to the Department for approval by October before the European Commission grants payment for the year.
INHFA alleges that planners received training and all the necessary documentation in August 2015, but to date, there have still been no CMPs lodged to the Government. The organisation further claims that the software to complete the plans is still under development and no date has been announced as to when it will be ready for use.
Department comment
A spokesperson for the Department revealed to the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday that they started inviting applications for prospective advisers earlier this week in order for CMPs to begin.
With regard to the CMP software still not being ready, the Department say the software is in “the final stages of development and will be released to advisers shortly”.
Despite calls from the industry to extend the deadline for affected farmers, the Department is satisfied the time frame as it stands is sufficient and will not be extended.
Farmers under pressure
By now, most CMPs should be completed so farmers can take their individual stocking rates into consideration before breeding sales begin.
INHFA CAP chair Colm O’Donnell is asking that farmers who still have not had an adviser assigned to them be offered some leeway in terms of stocking targets in GLAS II. He says it is “impossible to expect these cases to catch up” before the end of the year.
The INHFA has suggested to the Department that affected farmers be given until the end of 2017 to reach individual stocking rates.
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