Higgins backs amnesty over Irish Single Farm Payments clawback

Irish farmers who are being asked by the European Commission to pay back Single Farm Payment monies they have been overpaid should be granted an amnesty, European Parliament member Jim Higgins said during a meeting with Commission officials in Brussels.

He said the farmers had claimed their Single Farm Payments in good faith, using Department of Agriculture maps, but they have now received clawback letters.

Mr Higgins said that an audit of the Irish system of paying the SFP finished on Dec 15, leaving farmers to deal with the clawback letters.