New arrangements for farm schemes
THE Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has announced new arrangements to help farmers take part in several schemes during the Covid-19 crisis.
The arrangements include a pause on routine on-farm visits, though essential inspections may be carried out on a risk basis.
The Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed said, ‘Obviously public health measures are our priority concern right now but it’s essential that farming continues at this time and the schemes run by my Department are important in delivering some of the key productivity and environmental outputs from Irish farms. I have introduced some flexibilities to the scheme arrangements to reflect the fact that certain practices are not possible at this time and alternative arrangements are required.’
Inspection interviews for the Young Farmer Scheme are to be conducted by phone. Revised arrangements have been put in place for lodging an application under the Young Farmer/National Reserve schemes where the applicant’s green cert is held up due to the closure of colleges.
Revised arrangements are being put in place to submit applications for transferring Basic Payment Entitlements where it requires witnessed signatures. The deadline for submitting nitrates records for cross-compliance inspected cases has also been extended to the end of June.
Meanwhile, the closing date for Tranche 17 of TAMs has been deferred from April 24 to June 5. A three-month extension on all TAMs projects due to be completed (or approvals due to expire) between March 1 and July 1 has been arranged. A three-month extension on outstanding TAMs payment claims for projects to be completed by July 1 has also been put in place. As Health and Safety courses are now postponed, a derogation is now in place that defers the obligation to do the course but allows the applicant to be paid for completed works. This derogation is expected to last for three months and participants will be required to complete a course when courses resume.
The 10-day deadline for GLAS records following an inspection has been relaxed. The Department of Agriculture has set up a Covid-19 helpline on 076 1064468.