Farmers still wait for BPS payment

OVER 20,000 farmers are still waiting for their money under the Basic Payments Scheme (BPS) and the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) due to what have been described as ‘a series of minor problems’.

Hitches with map digitisation, satellite inspections and stocking rate requirements are some of the main reasons for the hold-up in payments – the delay is now stretching to seven weeks for some farmers.

Last week, senior IFA officials met with Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, to try and clear the backlog in payments that is causing serious financial hardship to many farmers.

“This is a time of the year when many farmers are under serious pressure to pay their bills and get their finances sorted out for the year.

“It is quite unacceptable that so many farmers are still waiting for payment despite the ANC payments being cleared since the Ploughing and the Basic Payments okayed since mid-October,” said Galway IFA Chairman, Pat Murphy.

He said that there didn’t seem to be ‘any one major problem’ with the payments and added that the time had come for the first tranche of the Basic Payments Scheme to be paid to everyone, with any adjustments needed left to be sorted out in the balancing payment.

The IFA Chairman said that there also seemed to be a difficulty caused by the reduction in staff numbers in the Dept. of Agriculture since the economic crisis, with employee numbers down by one third in the Department.

He added that what was really infuriating for many farmers who hadn’t received payments was the fact that the Department hadn’t communicated with them to let them know the cause of the delay.

IFA National President, Eddie Downey, who met with Minister Coveney last week on the issue, said it was totally unacceptable that 20,000 farmers were still waiting for BPS money while 15,000 still hadn’t been paid their ANC cash.

According to the IFA, in addition to hold-ups with maps, satellite inspections and stocking rates, delays were also being encountered in such areas as administration, dual claims, GLAS applications, transfers, herd numbers and commonages.

By last weekend, 106,000 basic payments had been made with over 80,000 ANC payments sent out. “Farmers facing bills in the next fortnight need to know what’s holding them up and to get any issue cleared up,” said IFA Deputy President, Tim O’Leary.