110,500 paid €722m in BPS advance payment

Advance payments of 70% of a farmer’s Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) commenced last Monday, 17 October. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine reports 110,500 applicants receiving payment this week, amounting to €722m.

In the region of 16,000 cases are awaiting or undergoing additional processing and the Department says regular payment runs will take place in the coming weeks to get payments out as soon as possible after they are cleared. This will continue until late November, in advance of balancing BPS payments beginning on 1 December.

Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments are continuing on a twice-weekly basis as payments are cleared. To date €177 has been paid to 82,000 applicants. Commenting on those yet to be paid, a Department spokesperson said: “As is normal at this juncture, many farmers are not yet eligible for payment as they have not yet fulfilled the necessary stocking requirements under the ANC scheme but will do so before the end of the year. An estimated 14,000 additional applicants are expected to qualify for payment in 2016.”

Helpline: The Department has taken additional steps to provide assistance to applicants in applying for and addressing problems. This trend is continuing with extended contact hours in place for the direct payments helpline for applicants who wish to contact the Department in relation to BPS or ANC payments. From 17 to 29 October, applicants can ring the helpline, (076) 106 4420 between 9am and 8.30pm on weekdays and from 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. The Minister also confirmed payments under the Young Farmers Scheme and the coupled Protein Aid will commence in December 2016.

Farmers waiting for TAMS II, tranche 3 approvals

The Irish Farmers Journal recently received farmer queries regarding the status of approvals for the third tranche of TAMS II (the farm buildings grant scheme). Pressure is building on farmers where the completion of works is preventing animals from being housed (replacement of slats, for example).

Just under 2,000 people applied in the third tranche, which closed on 24 June this year. According to the Department, applications under tranche three are currently being examined, with all administrative checks currently being completed. The Department says the ranking and selection process will begin shortly and they will begin to issue approvals for those cases selected for approval under this tranche.

Any cases not selected for approval under tranche three will be rolled over into tranche four. They did say, however, that a small number of approvals have been issued under tranche three in urgent cases, where the approval requested was linked to an approval under one of the earlier tranches. To date, approvals have been issued in relation to over 80% of applications submitted under tranche one and two of TAMS II. In total 8,919 people applied in the first four tranches of TAMS II, which opened for applications last June.

The TAMS II online payment claim system is open for the submission of payment claims in relation to approved works completed under the terms and conditions of the Scheme.

Payment claims submitted in line with all the requirements of the scheme’s terms and conditions, including those related to tax clearance and the completion, where required, of a farm safety course, will be processed for payment as soon as possible.

Phase 2 Milk Supply Reduction Scheme oversubscribed

As expected, Phase 2 of the EU’s Voluntary Supply Management Scheme for the dairy sector has been greatly oversubscribed. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has announced 556 applications from Irish dairy farmers for phase 2 with a proposed reduction total of approximately 6.4 million litres. The DAFM reports applications across the EU for 98 million litres of reductions.

The DAFM explains that the high subscription rate for Phase 1 of the scheme, which started in October and runs for three months, has left less than 1% of the overall budget of €150 available for payment in phase 2. There were high application rates across the EU, with 99% of available funding used. In Ireland, 4,400 dairy farmers applied under Phase 1 with a proposed reduction of 72m litres.

Commenting on Phase 2, DAFM said: “As expected, this (the budget remaining) was not enough to cover the volume of applications received, so the European Commission has applied a coefficient of just under 0.125 to all applications. This means that applicants for the scheme will only be compensated for 12.5% of the amount for which they applied.

“An example of how this will be applied is if someone applied for a 10,000 litre reduction in output, they will be compensated for reducing by 1,250 litres or 12.5% of this reduction. They may of course reduce by the full amount if they so wish but will not be compensated for anything above 12.5% of this amount”.

The Department says it will be in touch with the applicants for the scheme in the coming days to inform them of this result and authorising them to proceed with their reduction if they so wish.

Sheep payments

A meeting this week between IFA National Sheep Committee and Department of Agriculture has shed more light on payments for the new Animal Welfare Sheep Scheme. While not finalised, it looks like 2014 and 2015 (average of sheep census for both years) will act as a reference year for setting the maximum number of ewes a farmer will be paid on (€10/ewe proposed). Payment for specific years thereafter will be based on the number of ewes in that year, provided it does not exceed the maximum number set. Sheep chair John Lynskey said farmers in GLAS and adhering to Commonage Management Plans and required to increase numbers will be paid on the higher numbers.