The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) is calling on Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to avail of European Commission-approved flexibilities and ensure maximum payments are delivered on time to all farmers.

It comes after the Commission authorised EU member states to pay higher advances of CAP funds to help growing liquidity problems on farm.

Member states can now provide up to 70% of direct payments in advance as of 16 October, compared with 50% currently.

Similarly, advance payments for area- and animal-based interventions under rural development can be increased by up to 85%, instead of the usual 75%.

IFA national rural development chair John Curran said Minister McConalogue must ensure there are no “hold-ups” with payments.

“Ireland has availed of this flexibility in recent years and Minister McConalogue needs to do so again and ensure maximum payments are delivered to farmers on time this year.”

Payment delays

The traditional payment dates returned this year and farmers will receive ANC payments from the middle of this week.

However, Curran has said that cashflow has been a major issue for farmers this year.

“Delayed or recouped ACRES payments have compounded cashflow pressure on many farms, particularly hill farms and those in SAC areas,” he added.

“The Department need[s] to deliver on their commitments that maximum flexibility will apply to farmers needing to recoup some or all of interim payments received and that at least 95% of outstanding balancing ACRES payments will be paid out by end of September.

“They cannot always be at the end of the queue to be sorted out and paid, often times not knowing where they stand. These farmers entered the scheme in good faith, so need to be paid in good time also.”