Minister Must Deliver Maximum Payments on Time, to All – IFA

IFA National Rural Development Chair John Curran has called on Minister Charlie McConalogue to avail of Commission-approved flexibilities and ensure maximum payments are delivered on time to all farmers, starting this week with ANC payments.

John Curran was speaking after the Commission authorised EU Member States to pay higher advances of CAP funds to help growing liquidity problems on-farm.

Member States can now provide up to 70% of direct payments in advance as of 16 October, compared with 50% currently. Similarly, advance payments for area and animal-based interventions under rural development can be increased by up to 85%, instead of the usual 75.

“Ireland has availed of this flexibility in recent years, and Minister McConalogue needs to do so again and ensure maximum payments are delivered to farmers on time this year,” John Curran said.

IFA secured a return to traditional payments dates this year, so ANC payments will start to land the middle of this week, but cashflow is becoming more and more of a problem on many farms, across all sectors.

“Minister McConalogue needs to ensure there are no hold-ups with payments, and in the upcoming Budget, he needs to land a series of targeted measures to support the most vulnerable farm sectors,” he added.

“Delayed/recouped ACRES payments have compounded cashflow pressure on many farms, particularly hill farms and those in SAC areas. The Department need to deliver on their commitments that maximum flexibility will apply to farmers needing to recoup some/all of interim payments received, and that at least 95% of outstanding balancing ACRES payments will be paid out by end-September,” the IFA National Rural Development Chair said.

“There are a particular cohort of ACRES applicants too, fewer than three hundred in total, that have received no ACRES payment at all. Some arrangement needs to be made for these farmers.”

“They cannot always be at the end of the queue to be sorted out and paid, often times not knowing where they stand. These farmers entered the scheme in good faith, so need to be paid in good time also,” John Curran concluded.