This article is from page 47 of the 2007-10-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 47 JPG
FARMERS from all over the county began last week to benefit from ad- vanced payments under the 2007 Single Payment Scheme.
Nationwide some €533 million, representing a 50 per cent advanced payment, was made available to farmers from last Tuesday.
“T am particularly pleased that these payments, worth in excess of €533 million, have begun issuing today to some 113,500 farmers,” said the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan.
The payments are being made six weeks earlier than would otherwise be the case as a result of the success- ful outcome of her request to Com-
missioner Fischer Boel for an ad- vance payment in 2007 in response to the bad weather situation over the summer and the resultant farmer cash flow needs.
Minister Coughlan confirmed that advance payments would continue issuing up until November 30, with balancing payments issuing from | DY—fersia loro an
“While payments will continue to issue as individual cases become clear, | would again urge anybody who has received correspondence from my department highlighting problems in relation to their appli- cation, to respond without delay as, by doing so, these cases can then be processed to finality and payments issued,’ she continued.
“To date, over €231 million has been paid out under DAS, to about 94,000 farmers. DAS payments con- tinue to issue as cases are cleared and again, I urge farmers to respond to outstanding correspondence.
“In order to facilitate those farm- ers with specific queries relating to their SPS/DAS payments, I have had dedicated Lo-call numbers allocated in my department.”
Clare and Limerick farmers who wish to learn more should call KORY Perma evi Comm Or-U Asch ams eD we oes ers should call 1890 200502 and Tipperary farmers should call 1890 pm) e728
Meanwhile, Mary Coughlan has announced changes to the REPS sys- tem which she claims will make it
easier for farmers to move to REPS 4. Coughlan has confirmed that REPS 3 farmers who want to switch over to REPS 4 will now have two months after their anniversary dates to submit REPS 4 plans.
Up to now, farmers moving over to REPS 4 before their existing con- tracts were finished would have had to get their REPS 4 applications in before their anniversary dates.
“Getting the Commission to clear REPS 4 took a bit longer than we had hoped. So it was early August before I could launch the new scheme. At that stage we still had to finalise all the documentation, and much work had to be done to update the REPS system which planners use to pre- pare the maps,” she said.