Farmers made 104 appeals relating to the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) in 2024.

The Agriculture Appeals Office released its annual report which found that SCEP-related appeals accounted for the highest proportion of all appeals last year, at 21.5%.

This was followed by the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) with 13.9% (67 appeals) and then jointly by the Shannon Callows Flood Scheme and Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) at 10% (47 appeals).

ACRES

There were 29 appeals under the young farmers scheme and 28 under the Organic Farming Scheme.

Twenty-seven appeals last year related to the Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES).

In total, 23% of appeals were allowed, 6% were partially allowed, and 14% of appeals were revised by the Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile 44% of appeals were disallowed and 13% of appeals were withdrawn or invalid.

Some of the reasons for appeals in the SCEP scheme listed in the report include changes to the terms and conditions and the requirement to have sufficient forge hectares on the BISS application.

Cork was the county with the highest number of appeals at 54.

This was followed by Galway with 46 and Kerry with 37.

The number of appeals brought to a conclusion in the year was 636.

On receipt of an appeal, the appeals office requests the Department to provide a statement and the relevant documentation within three weeks.

The average number of days for the return of these files from the Department was 23 days last year, three days longer than the average in 2023, the report shows.

Timing

However, the average time taken to close an appeal in 2024 was 73 days, an improvement of 35% on the previous year.

SCEP appeals also took the longest to return, averaging 81 days last year.

Next up was Shannon Callows Flood Scheme appeals which only took 34 days on average to return.

The number of appeals remaining open as of 31 December 2024 was 301.

The principal function of the Agriculture Appeals Office is to provide a fair and efficient appeals service to participants in schemes administered by the Department of Agriculture.