Farmers ‘satisfied’ with department

Ireland: There is a high level of satisfaction among farmers in their dealings with the Department of Agriculture and Food, the annual report of the Agricultural Appeals Office (AAO) has indicated.

The department had more than 800,000 scheme applications last year.

A total of 1,116 appeals relating to 17 different schemes were received.

Some 33% of these were either successful or partially successful.

The AAO is an independent agency set up in 2002 to provide an appeals service for farmers unhappy with decisions of the department regarding their entitlements under certain schemes.