Delay in support pay leaves farmers in dire straits

DAIRY farmer Pat Enright hasn’t slept well in over a week.

Not since his farm support payments, once again, failed to arrive – they’re overdue since June. Pat is one of 40,000 farmers in a similar financial bind.

Pat is owed €8,900 in single farm payments and disadvantaged area payments, delayed since last June due to technical problems at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. All farms must be logged on a digital map detailing the land they are actively farming. Pat has not changed his area in the last three years, so the payments should be unchanged.

He has also recently invested in a calf house for cross-compliance with EU regulations.

FBD Insurance has given Pat a month’s grace on his overdue €4,000 bill for cover on his farm, home and livestock. The bank, the hardware store and other people he knows in Castleisland, Co Kerry, are all waiting to be paid.

The banks will not extend his credit.

“I didn’t sleep right the last few nights,” said Pat, who tends to 50 cows on his farm outside Castleisland, where he lives with his wife, Eileen, and their three children, Clodagh, 8, Tara, 5, and Fergal, 2.

“I know I shouldn’t feel this bad about it, I suppose, but I do. I’m ashamed to walk into Castleisland. I have bills out there. My insurance is up. It’s very hard for me to face people I owe money to.

“A friend of mine has a hardware store. I owe him money. He said that there’s a pile of fellas in the same situation as me. I wrote a cheque for €900 but it bounced because my account was €200 short.

“I went into the bank to tell them about the overdue single farm payment, but the girl in the bank said that was a totally new excuse to her, one she’d never heard before. So I asked my co-op chairman to write a letter to the bank to explain it.”

For non-farmers, these payments do take a bit of explaining. Basically, the EU compensates farmers who follow certain regulations. They meet certain ecological and quality targets. They also stay in farming, which is vital for the EU’s goal of food supply independence. The EU wants to protect its citizens against actions like Russia’s decision to ban grain exports this year due to its own internal shortages.

The payments were due in June, but have been held up due to the EU insisting on digital maps proving that farmers are only paid for lands which they are still actively farming.

Further payments are due out on December 1. If Pat Enright is once again left waiting, he’ll be owed around €16,000 and everything he owns will be uninsured.

“I had never had a cheque bounce in my life before this,” said Pat.

“The bank has the deeds of my farm. We brought bills into this year from last year because of the poor price per litre for milk.

“This year is even tougher than last year. People think we’re getting this money from the EU to play around with. I won’t tell you one word of a lie. I’m in dire straits.”

Pat was due a single farm payment advance of €9,000. Only €2,400 was paid out. He was due a disadvantaged area payment of €3,300 and only €1,000 was paid out.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Brendan Smith said: “Over €500 million has been paid to in excess of 110,000 farmers in advance SPS payments, which means that approximately 90% of all applicants have received an advance payment.

“It is essential that my Department’s Land Parcel Identification System is fully accurate, given the fact that LPIS underpins total expenditure under these schemes of in excess of €1.8 billion annually. The system must take account of changes to areas submitted by farmers. Any failings or shortcomings in LPIS would leave my department open to the risk of significant EU fines.”

IFA president John Bryan said the difficulties facing Pat Enright are replicated throughout the country because of the delay in making payments to thousands of farmers.

“Farmers are under pressure to pay bills and meet bank commitments. The minister must take responsibility as the delays are causing severe financial hardship on many farms.”

John Bryan said this issue has been dragging on for too long and the payment levels for both the single farm payment and disadvantaged area scheme are a little over 50% at this stage.

This time last year, most of the disadvantaged area payments had been made and most farmers had received their advance of the single farm payment.