IFA Says Direct Payments Must Be Completed by December 1st

IFA President John Bryan said that the progress on making Single Farm Payment and Disadvantaged Area Payments must be maintained so that by December 1st, the Department will be in a position to make the final 50% SFP payment to all eligible applicants. He said this means all outstanding cases must be dealt with by the Department before December 1st.

John Bryan said to date 106,000 famers have been paid €523m in Single Farm Payment and over 87,000 have received €192m in Disadvantaged Area payments.

The IFA President said the problems holding up payment to 12,000 farmers under the Disadvantaged Area scheme and 17,000 under the Single Farm Payment must all be fully resolved by December 1st. Delays over inspections, digitisation, transfers and processing are not acceptable. He said farmers who have received query letters from the Department should respond immediately in order to clear their payment.

The IFA President said that REPS and AEOS payments must be paid immediately as farmers have already made investments to meet the cost of measures in their Agri environmental plans. It is vital that all 2010 REPS4 payments, 2010 AEOS1 payments as well as all payments due in 2011 including AEOS2 are paid immediately.

John Bryan said IFA is working hard on helping clear many individual cases for payment.