Some 1,800 farmers who had cattle culled due to a TB outbreak in their herd are waiting on a compensation balancing payment from the Department of Agriculture.

The Department revealed the figure in response to a question from the Irish Farmers Journal.

Compensation changes

Impacted farmers were notified by letter in October that they were owed this money.

“Payment will issue to their nominated account automatically, there is no action required on their part.

“The rebalancing is due to be completed and repayments issued shortly,” a Department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to answer what the average payment owed to these farmers is and when exactly the monies will issue.

The balancing payments arose from changes to the compensation schemes for farmers with TB reactors in their herds that were agreed by the financial working group of the TB Forum.

The group, comprised of Department officials and key stakeholders, reached an agreement on a number of enhancements to the TB compensation schemes.

Those with new TB breakdowns in their herd are currently receiving the new rates, while there has been a delay in payment for herds who were already locked up prior to the commencement dates of the new rates.

“These herds continued to receive the previous income supplement rates whilst they were in breakdown,” the spokesperson said.

They added that the delay in issuing these top-up payments is due to “a significant amount of IT work to be carried out.”

Speaking on the TB balancing payment delays, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) animal health chair TJ Maher said the situation is disappointing and called for payment to be made by the close of 2024.

“We are extremely frustrated it has taken so long. Payments are to be made by end of year,” he said.