The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been urged to consider bringing forward the payment date for the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme this year because of “adverse weather conditions” in 2024.
Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway, Denis Naughten, said farmers have faced “huge cash flow challenges” because of consistently poor weather earlier this year.
Deputy Naughten asked Minister Charlie McConalogue that in light of this if he would bring the ANC payment forward.
ANC
In response Minister McConalogue told Deputy Naughten that his department will begin ANC payments – which is a Pillar II Scheme – from September 18 this year “to ensure money flows as soon as practically possible to farmers”.
“This payment date is in line with the traditional payment date of the ANC Scheme to farmers and is a full month earlier than in 2023.
“The payment dates for decoupled Direct Payments, which include the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) and ECO schemes, along with the decoupled Protein Aid are set out in Regulation,” the minister added.
According to Minister McConalogue the earliest date that payments can begin is December 1.
But he said a provision in the regulations allows an advance payment to be made before this, but not earlier than October 16.
“As set out in the terms and conditions for BISS and other 2024 area based schemes, advance payments will commence from this earliest possible date, which is October 16 for the main Pillar 1 Direct Payment Schemes,” he added.
Figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) show that 98,958 farmers in Ireland received ANC payments in 2023 totaling €247,935,720 across 26 counties.
Minister McConalogue has highlighted previously that the ANC scheme “provides payments to people farming land in designated areas facing significant hardships from factors such as remoteness, difficult topography, climatic problems, and poor soil conditions”.