BPS document ‘bewildering’ claims ICMSA

THE DRIVE by Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan, to simplify CAP must be accelerated, the ICMSA has claimed.

The association’s deputy president, Pat McCormack, said there was little evidence of Hogan’s ‘simplification’ agenda in the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening documentation which 130,000 farmers received recently.

McCormack pointed out that the terms and conditions for this year’s CAP programmes ran to a whopping 79 pages. He said the words “bewildering complexity” rather than simplicity came to mind.

“The very fact that it takes the Department 79 pages to set out the terms and conditions around the legal aspects of the regime is proof-positive that the bureaucracy around this system is simply way over-the-top and hopelessly impractical,” he said.

ICMSA has called for a number of changes to the schemes in relation to land eligibility, administrative penalties and tolerances that the organisation claims would simplify the regime for farmers, reduce unnecessary penalties and speed up payments.

“For example, the exclusion of farm roadways from eligible land makes no sense as roadways are an essential part of good farming practice and they should be regarded as necessary farm infrastructure and thus be eligible for payment,” McCormack maintained.

He said that administrative penalties associated with the Nitrate regulations accounted for over 40pc of the total cross- compliance penalties.

“In the same way as we see with the BPS/Greening terms and conditions, ICMSA believes that this regime can be reformed in a way that reduces the penalties while meeting fully the requirements of the regulations,” he said.

“Our point is that if these obvious and logical changes were accepted and introduced then the whole regime would become much more understandable in a way that would have to result in a speedier processing of payments.”