Top farms to get €300,000 cheques

TOP Irish beneficiaries from the new EU Single Payment Scheme (SPS) will get nearly €1,000 per day, when cheques issue in December.

The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that three Irish farmers have entitlements of more than €300,000, in the first year the scheme which converts the average livestock and crop premia paid from 2000 to 2002 into a single payment, decoupled from acreage or livestock numbers.

A further nine farmers have qualified for between €200,000 and €300,000 per annum in payments.