Very easy to lose the payments which keep many in farming
They average about €17,000 per farm, and keep our cattle and sheep farms in business — because on average, their sales are insufficient to cover production costs.
However, the payments have brought frustration for some farmers unable to cope with the task of making applications, and with hundreds of “good farming” rules demanded of recipients of EU aid. Getting their applications in by last Monday's deadline was an onerous task for them. But they are not home and dry yet. Mistakes, or inspections, could still result in partial or complete loss of the cheque in the post which keeps so many farmers going.
Here are some of the hundreds of annual examples which show how easily payments can be lost — and which also reveal that the Department of Agriculture often takes a lenient approach.
* Galway East TD Paul Connaughton has raised the plight of a constituent from whom entitlements have been withdrawn, stating in the Dáil that there was a genuine reason the entitlements were not used, and there will be severe financial hardship, if entitlements are not reinstated.
According to the Department of Agriculture response, the late husband of the person named established 18.61 standard entitlements worth €1,501.64. They were not used in 2009 and 2010, and expired. The herd-number was transferred to the person named from her late husband in July 2007, and single payment applications submitted for each year since — but the person did not apply to transfer the single payment entitlements to her own name. Consequently, no payment issued, and the entitlements remained unused.
An application to transfer entitlements was received in December, 2010, along with a copy of letters of administration. Even though this application was several months after the closing date, it has been accepted, and the entitlements will be re-instated, and the 2010 single payment will issue in due course.
* A Co Carlow farm was selected for ground eligibility and cross compliance inspection in 2010. Discrepancies were found which resulted in the claimed area of 203.99 hectares being reduced to a payable area of 131.57ha —principally because of lands in Co Wicklow declared as 72.84 ha of permanent pasture on the application. At inspection, it was determined that this parcel was not being farmed — because it was neither stock-proofed nor maintained in good agricultural and environmental condition, and was thus deemed ineligible for payment. Because the total entitlements held are 178.88, and the difference between the area claimed and the area found is greater than 50%, no payment could issue for 2010. An application for review of this decision is under consideration.
* A nitrates inspection on a Co Cork farm by the Department of Agriculture’s integrated controls division — acting on behalf of the Environment Department — uncovered discrepancies deemed to be intentional, and a penalty of 20% was recorded against the 2010 direct payment for the person named.
