merrion street

The Department has put forward a strong case to the EU Commission seeking a derogation in relation to the Crop Diversification obligations for the 2018 Scheme Year. We are confident that the case being made meets the relevant standards, as set out in the Regulations, for such an exemption. A number of Member States have recently been granted such an exemption due to difficult weather in the autumn/winter of 2017. 

Whilst formal approval from the EU Commission for the Irish derogation is now awaited, the advice from the Department is that where alternative crop options are not available to allow farmers to be compliant with Crop Diversification rules, growers can make crop choices that best suit their current situation, even if this leaves them non-compliant with the Crop Diversification rules.