Irish Organic Farmers protest over delayed payments

Several dozen organic farmers have been protesting outside Department of Agriculture offices in Athenry, Co Galway (Ireland) over delayed farm payments.

Pádraic Finnegan of the Organic Farmers’ Representative Body said hundreds of organic farmers should have received 75 per cent of their organic farming scheme payment in early December, but are still waiting.

“People are very angry over the way they have been treated by the department,” he said. “It’s a poor thing that organic farmers have to show up on the side of the road on a picket line in the month of January to get last year’s money paid.”

They carried placards saying “no respect for organic farmers” and “organic farmers deserve equality”.

He said farmers had been told they had been caught up in an internal dispute in the Department of Agriculture. “All we know is that organic farmers are the losers in all of this.”

Mr Finnegan said the protesters handed in a letter of protest to the Athenry office and were informed the files were sent for payment last Friday. “We’ve got an undertaking that all the files will be dealt with this week, so the protest was 100 per cent successful.”

A Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said the dispute had now been resolved and payments were being processed as a matter of top priority. “The dispute delayed payments to organic farmers in all areas but they are now being worked on and will be issued as soon as possible.”

Asked what the dispute concerned, she said: “The department does not comment on operational matters.”

The bodies that provide certification to organic farmers are now seeking payment for 2015, but Mr Finnegan said farmers could not pay it until they received their farm payments.