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The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, TD, today confirmed that, following the recent definitive allocation of entitlements by his Department, the final instalment of payments under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening will commence today, the 27th June. In respect of the 2015 BPS, the final balancing payment will amount to in excess of €33 million.
The Minister commented that “The rollout of the final balancing payments brings the total paid under the Basic Payment Scheme to some €1.2 billion and over 126,000 farmers have received payment to date. Taken together with payments under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme, this represents a total of over €1.4 billion in direct payments to farmers since last September.”
The Minister added “This is a very significant financial boost for both individual farmers and the wider rural economy, and represents an important investment in the continued growth of our Agri-food sector.”
Turning to the 2016 BPS, Minister Creed confirmed that “work is currently underway in my Department in relation to the processing of advance and full balancing payments in October and December for the 2016 BPS”
The Minister continued “I am also delighted to note a substantial increase in on-line applications under the BPS in 2016 to over 101,000. The successful introduction of preliminary checks for these on-line applicants will help to improve the accuracy of BPS applications and to reduce penalties for farmers under the BPS and the Areas of Natural Constraints scheme”.