Farm supports payments delayed by nine days due to strike
Around €600m in farm support payments that were due to be paid this Friday will now not reach farmers until October 27.
The Department of Agriculture said it is delaying the payment of BISS and CRISS supports by nine days due to today's public sector strike.
It is understood that around €600m in farm support payments that were due to be paid this Friday will now not reach farmers until October 27.
In a statement last night, the department said the industrial action across the public sector would push them back. It now expects to issue them on Tuesday, October 27.
Eco-scheme payments are not affected and will start on schedule this Friday. The department said BISS and CRISS will still be paid at the higher advance rate of 75% when they issue.
However, farm organisations reacted angrily to the late notice. IFA president Francie Gorman called the delay a “bombshell for farm families”. He said households had planned bank repayments and other bills around the payments arriving this week.
“It defies logic that a one-day work to rule and strike action could result in an 11-day delay in payments,” Mr Gorman said, adding that he had spoken to the agriculture minister last night and told him the decision “must be revisited by the Government immediately”.
Mr Gorman said the department should have seen the risk coming, given the attention the dispute has received. He said possible delays were not raised at the most recent Farmers Charter meeting.
ICMSA president Denis Drennan called the move “stunning and totally inexplicable”. He said unions had given at least three weeks’ notice of the strike, and the department should have had the payments ready to go before it started.
“Thousands of farmers received their ANC a number of weeks ago, why can’t the BISS and CRISS thus be paid automatically? Has someone refused to press a button?” Mr Drennan asked.
He warned that direct debits farmers had set up to come out of the payments next weekend could bounce. That could mean bank charges and damage to farmers’ credit ratings. He called on the minister to “act immediately”.
ICSA said farmers should not have to bear the cost of a dispute they are not part of. It called on the department to make sure there are no further delays.
More than 100,000 public servants have been on a work-to-rule since September 30 in a dispute over a new public service pay deal. The previous pay agreement expired in June. A nationwide one-day strike takes place today, and a second is planned for October 21.
