Relief for farmers as state pays €67.6m bill for EU funding clawback

Farmers will not have to contribute to the €67.6 million of funding clawed back from Ireland by the EU Commission, due to claiming of payments for ineligible land.

Instead, the clawback is covered by a Supplementary Estimate to increase the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine expenditure for 2015.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said, “I expected — as did a lot of farmers — that they would have to pay for a significant portion of the disallowance that was being applied to Ireland.