ICSA president Dermot Kelleher has said pushing back the payment dates for important agri schemes is unacceptable and has called on the Department of Agriculture to scrap its proposals. “At today’s meeting of the Farmers’ Charter the Department put forward a set of proposals that would mean the payment dates of certain schemes would be pushed back by up to a month. Representatives from ICSA made it very clear that any interfering with payment dates is unacceptable,” he said.

Mr Kelleher said he was particularly alarmed by a proposal to hold back ANC payments by four weeks and set a new payment date of mid-October. “The September ANC payment is hugely important to farmers. It is a very busy and expensive time of the year for all families and farm families are no different. We in ICSA can see no justification for withholding farmers’ income particularly at time when making ends meet has become more difficult than ever.”

ICSA also expressed alarm at proposals to delay the BISS payment by one week. “Again, this will lead to unnecessary hardship for farmers, by meddling with traditional payment dates. This would be unacceptable for any worker in any sector and these proposals must be binned.”