Dáil Éireann Debate, Monday - 11 September 2023
1308. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the details of delayed payments payable to farmers such as BISS and ANC; the reason for the delays; the date such payments will be made categorised by individual schemes; the measures that were taken to avoid such delays in anticipation of this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38471/23]
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I know how crucial all payments are to our farm families and I am committed to delivering all payments associated with my Department as quickly as possible.
With this being the first year of the new CAP Strategic Plan, a whole range of new schemes are being introduced along with substantial changes to existing schemes over a relatively short time period.
The new CAP represents a significant evolution of the policy compared to previous iterations. It needs to be clearly understood by all stakeholders that the new CAP introduced a whole new delivery model and established several new schemes. In 2023, the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is replaced by the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).
While payment will still be paid based on Payment Entitlements, there are substantial changes to the BISS compared to the BPS, including very positive changes to land eligibility and a new active farmer check.
The land eligibility rules have changed from the previous CAP, to allow scheme payments on greater areas of scrub and other areas deemed beneficial for the climate and environment. The active farmer check is being introduced to ensure the person receiving the scheme payments is the person farming the land. These are all important changes, which will benefit farmers. An advance payment for BISS is expected to be paid on 24 October 2023, in line with the mid-October payment date in previous years.
In addition, the mechanisms used by my Department to check the scheme requirements for many of the schemes are also changing in 2023, especially with the mandatory introduction of the Area Monitoring System as required under EU regulations. The Area Monitoring System has many significant benefits for Irish farmers including a reduction in the number of on-farm physical inspections and the introduction of warning alerts to farmers so as to minimise the occurrence of non-compliances, allowing farmers to correct mistakes and giving farmers and advisors more time to respond to queries with no impact on their payment. I am also mindful of the substantial workload of advisors in 2023, including the ACRES scorecards, over the summer months.
It should also be noted that the closing date for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes applications (including the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme) was Monday 29 May 2023, two weeks later than previous years and thereby provided farmers and advisors more time to submit their applications before the closing date.
The timelines for all schemes, including the planned payment dates, have been set taking account of the impact of introducing a whole suite of new schemes, new applications systems, new monitoring systems, new validation and processing systems and new payment systems.
A letter issued earlier to farmers in March this year regarding the revised payment dates for 2023, and a further letter reconfirming these dates will be delivered to farmers later this week. These revisions have been made as a result of the changes brought about under the new CAP, and a detailed schedule is provided below.
I am very aware of the importance of these advance payments for farmers and In line with commitments given at meetings of the Charter of Rights for Farmers earlier this year, my Department is committed to bringing 2024 payment dates back in line with the previous programme when the technological and administrative challenges brought about by the new CAP programme have been fully addressed.
Schedule of 2023 Payment Dates
• ANC (commonly referred to as DAS or headage) Advance Payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 17 October 2023
• BISS & CRISS Advance Payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 24 October 2023
• ECO Scheme Advance Payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 31 October 2023
• Balancing Payments across all the above four schemes and the CISYF payment will commence issuing to cleared cases in December 2023
• Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) – payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 20 November 2023
• National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme – payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 4 December 2023
• Protein Aid Scheme - payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 6 December 2023
• Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) – payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 11 December 2023
• National Beef Welfare Scheme – payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 11 December 2023
• Tillage Incentive Scheme (TIS) – payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 11 December 2023
• Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) - payments commence issuing to cleared cases from – 13 December 2023
