Over half a billion euro is to be paid to Irish farmers in advance payments as part of two EU-funded income-support schemes in the coming days, the Minister for Agriculture has confirmed.
Minister Martin Heydon said from tomorrow €510.9m in payments will be made to 110,499 farmers under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) schemes.
The BISS provides direct income support to farmers to make their farms sustainable and viable, while the CRISS is a new scheme designed to redistribute funds from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy from larger farms to medium and smaller-sized farms.
The Department of Agriculture said that by the middle of May it received 123,705 applications from farmers for the two schemes, and that at present 117,713 of them are eligible to receive payments.
The amount farmers receive is based on the number of hectares they farm that qualify for the schemes.
However, some farms do not qualify due to a number of reasons, including the applicant not holding payment entitlements, a claimed area of zero declared on the application, or the applicant not having eligible land.
The Department said that as of today 93.87% of applicants have been paid, which is in line with a Government commitment under the Farmers Charter to pay 90% of eligible applications.
Minister Heydon said the BISS and CRISS schemes are "a critical element of family-farm income and, also make a significant contribution to the wider rural economy".
"Combined with the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme (ANC) payments that issued in September it means that in excess of €694m of area-based payments have been paid from my Department in the past month," the Minister said.
"The BISS & CRISS advance payments are expected to commence at a rate of 70%. Payments will be visible in farmers' bank accounts in the coming days and the Department will continue to process, as a matter of urgency, all remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria," he said.
"I would urge any farmers with outstanding requests for documentation from the Department to return it to allow payments to issue," he added.
The Department said payments under the 2025 ANC, which commenced last month, are also continuing as more cases are cleared for payment and 2025 payments under the Eco-Scheme will commence from next week.
Farmers can contact the Department of Agriculture in relation to BISS or ANC payments via the Direct Payments Helpdesk at 057 8674422, while queries can also be submitted online via www.myagfood.ie.
