The Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association have called on Minister Coveney to deliver on his promise and ensure all farmers in the BDGP that are using 2014 as a reference year are paid in full by Christmas. This promise was made at a meeting in Claremorris, Co Mayo last June and helped to convince many hard pressed Suckler farmers to remain in the Scheme.
What has transpired in recent days is that calves will have to be at least five months old before farmers can apply to get payment on them as survey forms for the first five months has to be completed prior to any payments being made. While this will not be a problem for farmers calving down all their cows by the end of June we understand there are a sizable number of autumn calving herds that will not get paid in 2015.
INHFA National Chair Vincent Roddy outlined how this is causing a major problem for many farmers who had being counting on this money arriving before Christmas and stated “that measures should now be put in place to ensure full payment is issued to these farmers as promised by the Minister last June”.
Failure to do this will stated Mr Roddy “undermine farmer confidence not just in this scheme but all other schemes as trust is a currency that can’t be taken for granted”
