DARD have announced that payments under the basic payment scheme, greening and the young farmers top up have started to be issued to farmers from today.
Close to 18,000 CAP scheme payments totalling £154m have been issued to farmers in NI today (1 December) by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).
Payments totalling £154m have been made by DARD today (01-12-2015)
Making the announcement agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill said that the payments issued today would reach farmers’ bank accounts by this Friday (4 December).
Targets of paying 95% of eligible applicants by the end of December and paying all eligible applicants that were inspected by the end of March have been set by the minister.
Minister O’Neill said: “This year has also been challenging for farmers and DARD with the introduction of a new set of schemes. I am happy that despite the complications and additional work this has brought.”
Basic payments, greening payments and successful applicants to the young farmers top up will be paid from today. In total this will equate to around £236m when all payments are completed.
Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill delivering a keynote speech at the 2015 Balmoral Show
The minister noted that the increased number of applicants applying online this year has helped DARD process applications and get timely payments to farmers.
“I hope that more farmers will recognise the benefits of applying online and help us to further improve on payment performance in the future,” she said.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – Peter Mc Cann – 01/12/2015)
€285m in BPS Payments Issued in Rep. of Ireland
97% of the payment owed to farmers is being issued this week.
As signalled by a text received by many farmers around the country this morning, €285m worth of BPS payments should be landing in bank accounts from today onwards. Farmers cleared last week will receive 97% of the payment they are due in the second tranche being issued this week.
Farmers already paid will receive an additional 27%, with the balance of 3% to be paid out in 2016. There will be a cut of 1.39% taken off all farmers who are paid over €2,000.
(Source – Irish Farmers Journal – 30/11/2015)