Dealings with agricultural land

Significant changes have been made to the direct payment schemes by which farmers and others using agricultural land receive subsidies related to that land. Practitioners are referred to the news piece by Oliver Ryan-Purcell, solicitor, which highlights the issues involved, published in the November 2014 Gazette (p10),

Further useful information is available in a publication (CAP 2015: An Introduction to Direct Payments) available on the Department of Agriculture website at www.agriculture.gov.ie (follow ‘CAP 2015 Direct Payments Information Centre’). This contains examples of what happens in commonly arising situations of sales, leases, gifts and inheritances of land and of entitlements during the transition from the existing single payment scheme to the new basic payment scheme and how, in certain circumstances, the right to apply for payments under the basic payment scheme in 2015 (the ‘allocation right’) will transfer with land.

The committees are grateful to Mr Ryan-Purcell for drawing attention to the matter.