Single Payment Scheme: get application form wrong and you’ll pay the penalty
Rushing and getting something wrong carries extra risk this year; because if this year’s application is incorrect, it could affect the total value of the entitlements definitively held (owned) on May 15 — which forms part of the calculation of the new Basic Payment entitlements in the new 2015-2020 CAP.
If you recently bought or sold entitlements, the May 15 deadline is vital.
More than ever, the Single Payment Scheme application is one of the most important jobs we will undertake in the year, and it’s one of the most feared.
For many farmers, it’s a job that necessitates the help of a professional, like a farm adviser.
However, even in the hands of professionals, problems and confusion can arise.
On this farm in 2013, we suf fered an SPS penalty which amounted to a sum a little shy of €1,000.
I have appealed this, with the help of my farm adviser, and am hoping to overturn it.
Single Payment Scheme troubles can affect us all. At this time, it’s useful to consider the pitfalls that can occur between filling in the form and receiving that all important lodgement into your bank account.
Mistakes will be made, and if you run into trouble, and it’s getting on top of you, your local TD has been the last resort to turn to for help in many cases.
Your TD can at least take your problem “straight to the top”, if he succeeds in putting your question in the D•il to the man in charge of paying out the EU’s €1.2bn of payments per year to farmers — Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney.
Unfortunately, not even the minister can do anything to help most cases.
However, his answers in the D•il demonstrate how the SPS business can go badly wrong for farmers if they don’t get this week’s application spot on, and don’t comply with the many on-farm requirements.
Correctly inputting only our eligible land onto the SPS application is a basic. Getting it wrong led to Deputy Noel Harrington asking the minister why a deduction was made in the payment to a Co Cork farmer back in 2012.
The minister’s response highlighted issues over two parcels declared in this farmer’s application. The first parcel had also been declared by another applicant. The second parcel had been over-claimed by the farmer.
In this case, the farmer duly accepted that he did not have the right to declare the dual-claimed parcel. And he also accepted that he had over-claimed on the second parcel. As a consequence, he was penalised.
However, the same farmer was then selected for a cross compliance inspection which took place on May 31, 2012.
During the course of the inspection, breaches relating to both nitrates and cattle identification/registration requirements were recorded.
As a result, a penalty of 5% was also registered against the farmer’s 2012 payments.
A ground eligibility/cross compliance inspection identified discrepancies between the area declared by a Co Galway farmer and the area found, resulting in an over-declaration in area.
This only too familiar story emerged in the minister’s reply to Deputy …amon ” Cuív was in his corner asking the mXinister questions on the penalties that had been applied in this case.
Further more, the cross compliance inspection identified breaches relating to nitrates regulations on the stockpiling of farmyard manure. This alone resulted in a 20% penalty against the payment.
Further breaches were identified of the requirement to maintain land in good agricultural and environmental condition (the lands were poached by animals, leading to soil erosion, and there was direct discharge of slurry to groundwater). The penalty was another 20%, so 40% in total came off the 2013 payment.
Judging by D•il questions, many farmers fail nitrates inspections. Deputy Dan Neville’s enquiries on behalf of a County Limerick farmer after an SPS fine was imposed revealed a nitrates inspection by the Department had been carried out. Inspectors found breaches relating to inadequate collection of manure, inadequate management of storage facilities for manure, and stockpiling of farmyard manure on land in contravention of buffer zone regulations. A penalty of 20% was recorded against the farmer’s 2012 direct payments. The farmer requested a review of this decision, but the outcome of the review was to uphold the original decision. The minister suggested that the farmer look to the Farm Advisory System (FAS) for assistance to become compliant in the future.
Each EU member state is required to establish an approved Farm Advisory System to advise farmers on land and farm management, particularly statutory management requirements and the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions.
Initially, CAP funding to cover the cost of advice was not been drawn down in Ireland, and was allocated to other measures instead.
However, the FAS is now in place, through which the Department of Agriculture approves and trains advisers on EU payment cross-compliance.
A list of more than 570 approved FAS advisers is available in the cross-compliance section of the Farmer Schemes & Payments part of the Department’s www.agriculture.gov.ie website.
In the D•il, Deputy Michael Healy-Rae raised the plight of a Co Kerry farmer, and was informed by the minister that a satellite inspection had found a possible over claim on the farm — which led in turn to a ground inspection. The inspectors found that the over claim was greater than 20%. Under the Terms and Conditions of the Single Payment Scheme, this resulted in a nil payment in respect of 2013.
Also, the minister noted that his department had received a 2013 Transfer of Entitlements Application from the farmer, looking to transfer 3.75 entitlements by way of sale to another farmer. This transfer was not possible — because these entitlements were not owned by the particular farmer — he had only leased them.
The farmer was advised by the department that if he wished to proceed with the transfer, it was necessary to end the original lease, and have the entitlements in question gifted to him.
