No extension to unharvested crops scheme deadline

Thee scheme is available to all growers who were unable to harvest cereal crops due to wet weather in September and October.

Calls for an extension to the application deadline for the scheme to compensate farmers for unharvested crops have been turned down.

Agriculture, Food and the Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue told the Dáil before Christmas that the relevant European Union Regulation clearly specifies that payments must be made by January 31, 2024.

In view of the very short window to administer the scheme and to have payments made by the deadline, it is not possible for the department to extend the deadline for applications, he said.

Deputy Sean Canny said farmers have suffered significant losses in applying for the scheme due to the short duration during which applications were open. This had taken a significant toll on their physical, mental and financial health.

Deputy Carol Nolan also asked the minister to outline what efforts he had made to ensure the maximum number of tillage farmers were made aware of the scheme.

She called on him to address concerns that some growers had no idea that such a scheme was in place, and subsequently missed the application deadline.

Minister McConalogue said he announced an additional €7.147m on November 16 in State funding to support the tillage sector.

This additional national support represents a 100% top-up to the €7.147m allocated under the EU Agricultural Reserve announced in early October.

This State funding is being used to support growers with unharvested crops with the remaining available funds being used as a top-up to all eligible recipients of the Ag Reserve payment announced in October.

He said a press release issued by the department on the announcement was covered widely by the agricultural media at the time.

The scheme opened for applications on November 16 and farmers who wished to avail of it had to submit applications by close of business on November 24.

“While I appreciate that the period for submitting applications was relatively short, it was necessary to allow sufficient time for my officials to process applications and for the necessary inspections to be carried out to enable payments to be made in January 2024,” he said.