Two weeks ago we reported that a local internal dispute in the
Department of Agriculture was holding up REPS 4 payments to farmers in both Carlow and Kilkenny and the neighbouring counties.
It now seems that the dispute is over and the Department of Agriculture will be making every effort to ensure that the relevant farmers will receive their cheques as soon as possible.
However, the Department has not indicated when the cheques will be posted and at this stage it seems very likely that a number of farmers might not receive the more than welcome letter before Christmas.
And on that point the president of the IFA Padraig Walsh has called on the Minister for Agriculture to make sure that all REPS 4 payments are made without delay. "Now that the dispute in the Department is over, I do not see why there should be any unnecessary delay in making the payments. There has been too much of a delay already. We must remember that under the new payment arrangement for REPS 4 farmers were promised that they would receive three-quarters of their payments during the autumn months, with the remainder being paid out before the end of the year. As you know that has not happened with the result that a number of farmers have experienced cash flow problems,” he explained.
