Mr. Padraic Finnegan:

I thank the Chairman and committee members for giving us the opportunity to highlight the major problems with the organic farming scheme. I also thank Deputy Thomas Pringle for organising the meeting.

The introduction of double funding has impacted very severely on farmers with a few hectares as they can no longer benefit from both the GLAS and organic schemes. A severe financial cut has been imposed on the smaller producer. We seek to have the schemes front-loaded to lessen the impact on those with small farms. We have a copy of our submission on the CAP and rural development plan. We want to know the reason the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine decided to ignore our submission in favour of the completely one sided scheme it has introduced and disregarded the financial implications for the smaller producer. We are not looking for more money but want the funds to be fairly distributed to allow those with small farms to continue to farm organically. We also have a copy of the observations made by the planners which point to the major problems from their point of view.

The Department needs to define clearly the role of a certification body. We ask why the Department cannot do this work? What the certification body is charging farmers is absolutely scandalous. Sums ranging from 9% to 25% of the organic payment have to be paid to the certification body. I have three examples of fees paid to the certification body in the five year lifetime of the scheme: a farmer with 12 hectares pays €2,200; a farmer with 30 hectares pays €3,000, while a farmer with 50 hectares pays €3,100.

The body not only collects fees from farmers, it also collects from factories, co-op marts, shops and butchers, etc. It is also funded by the Department. In its present form the scheme is completely biased in favour of the big farmer to the detriment of the small operator and needs to be reviewed urgently.

A problem with payments came to light once again this week. We always have a problem in getting paid. There seems to be an ongoing problem in paying out under the organic farming scheme. Payments under all other schemes are made on time; the single farm payment, the rural environment protection, REP, payments and payments under areas of natural constraint schemes are all made inside the year, usually before Christmas. The organic farming payment which had been due at the end of 2014 was not made until February 2015 and it took a protest by our members at the agri-environment schemes, AES, office in Athenry to force the Department to pay out. The Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, gave us a commitment that this would never happen again as the organic farming scheme would be included in the electronic system, like all other schemes, but that has not happened. We were in contact with Johnstown Castle earlier this week and informed that the electronic payments system would apply only to new entrants and those included in the scheme previously would remain on the old system. I asked what progress had been made with the applications not included in the electronic system. The man said no files had yet arrived in Johnstown Castle from any area office in the country. This can have only one outcome - our payments will be late again this year.

We had to face into last Christmas without the organic farming payment. The position this year will be far worse because the REPS 4 scheme has finished and many of the farmers in that scheme will face a far more serious financial problem this year. It is essential that the organic farming payment be made in line with all others. Farmers are keeping their end of the deal, but the Department is not.