THE PUBLIC will be able to download details of what farmers received from the EU last year under a number of schemes from the Department of Agriculture website, www.agriculture.gov.ie
Details of payments under the rural environment protection scheme, young farmers installation aid, disadvantaged area payments and the farm improvement scheme are being published late this evening.
It will be April though before details of what farmers received under the single farm payment, sugar restructuring payment or residual coupled payments made in the previous year.
Also available from April will be details of payments to meat plants and processors for export refunds, market intervention and production aids. The publication of the details are mandatory from today under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
The publication comes as the final cheques from Brussels are posted to 100,000 farmers containing the disadvantaged area payments. All future payments will be made electronically. Farmers have already been told that their names, addresses and total payments made will be published.
The first half of the single farm payment will be paid out from the middle of October, six weeks early, because of the bad weather.