SFP implementation enters crucial stage

AGRICULTURE Minister Mary Coughlan has announced that a national series of information meetings for farmers will begin next week, as implementation of the Single Payment Scheme enters the most crucial final stages, in the run-up to the May 16 closing date for receipt of completed applications under the Scheme.
SFP implementation enters crucial stage

Late applications after the deadline will be subject to penalties, and farmers who have not submitted an application by June 10 will lose their Single Farm Payment entitlements, which replace the Suckler Cow, Extensification, Ewe Premium, Arable Aid, Special Beef Premium, and Slaughter Premium payments.

Only in cases of force majeure (exceptional circumstances) can late applications be accepted.

The Department of Agriculture and Food, in conjunction with Teagasc, will hold information meetings in more than 40 locations, details which will be published in the national and local press.

Minister Coughlan said that the meetings would cover all aspects of the Scheme, including consolidation (stacking) of entitlements, decoupling of the Dairy Premium, the sale and lease of entitlements, completion of the Single Payment application form and cross compliance.

The Minister said that as part of the implementation of the Single Payment Scheme, she had decided to issue maps of all the areas declared by farmers, who submitted Area Aid applications in 2004. More than 400,000 maps are being issued to about 135,000 farmers.

Minister Coughlan asked farmers to carefully study these maps to ensure that they are in line with the lands they intend to declare in 2005.

If there were any amendments such as the exclusion of land transferred for house sites etc., the excluded lands should be marked in red ink on the map and the amended map should be submitted with the 2005 Single Payment application form.

In the coming weeks, farmers will also receive another statement like the provisional statement of entitlements issued last November.

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