IFA Encourages Farmers to Make Online Application for Basic Payment
IFA Deputy President Tim O’ Leary said farmers should make their Basic Payment application online in order to benefit from the many advantages in terms of early processing, reduced errors and payment on time within the deadlines set down in the Charter of Farmers Rights.
Tim O’ Leary said with the Department of Agriculture online applications for 2016 open, more farmers should consider moving their application from manual to online, “IFA is pushing the Department to offer a pre-checking system for all online BPS applications this year. IFA has received confirmation from EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan that this pre-checking is possible under the CAP simplification changes for 2016 and the Department should make it available to Irish farmers.”
The IFA Deputy President said online applications will increase again this year and should exceed 100,000, as farmers that have applied for GLAS have already used the online system. He said an additional 4,600 farmers in GLAS will be moving from a manual to an online application for BPS. Last year, some 93,000 farmers or 70% of all applicants, made their application online in 2015. There are approximately 40,000 farmers still using manual applications.
Tim O’ Leary pointed that the benefits of using the online system are considerable and include earlier application date, pre-checking, instant confirmation of receipt of application, reduced application errors and greater accuracy, online maps, text alert from the Department, payment on time within deadlines, and online linkage to other schemes such as GLAS. In addition, the Department has confirmed to IFA that they are going to make personnel available at local and national level to assist farmers on the technical aspects of making their online applications.
Number of Farmers applying on-line
2007 7,540
2008 19,645
2009 34,461
2010 43,587
2011 54,383
2012 65,143
2013 73,507
2014 80,003
2015 93,044
