Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take on board how serious this is for the farmers affected, and that is why we have so many safeguards in place between the extra pop-ups on the screen to point out to the farmer that they are potentially about to make a significant mistake. In the 2022 application process, my Department issued an information letter in April of that year. We also reviewed applications on an ongoing basis, and in the run-up to the 2022 closing date, we contacted farmers if it appeared they were eligible for ANC but did not apply. My Department directly contacted farmers who had applied for the ANC scheme in 2021 but did not tick the box to apply for it when submitting their basic payment scheme, BPS, application in 2022, despite having declared ANC land in their application. The purpose of these calls was to confirm that the applicants had correctly indicated that they did not wish to apply for the ANC scheme in 2022 and to advise those who had incorrectly ticked the box to amend their application. Approximately 150 farmers subsequently amended their BPS application to include an application for the ANC scheme following the receipt of a call from the Department. My officials went to great lengths to identify the farmers that may have made this mistake and to try to help them with it. Nonetheless, I take on board the Deputy's point of view and I reassure him that we constantly review these schemes and the interactions of farmers with them.

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