Farmers ‘screwed’ by charges

FARMERS are being ‘nailed’ in terms of administrative costs for schemes such as GLAS and the Knowledge Transfer Scheme, according to independent West of Ireland TD, Michael Fitzmaurice.

The Roscommon-Galway East TD has now asked the Government to ‘investigate’ the charging regime for scheme requirements that’s being applied to farmers by Teagasc, agricultural consultants and vets.

“I have been contacted by several farmers about the excessive costs that are involved with participation in the GLAS and other schemes.

“My understanding is that to get into GLAS costs in the region of €400 to €500 with additional costs in relation to soil sampling and in the drawing up of a nutrient management plan.

“From what I am being told, it is costing a huge amount of money for the time it takes to carry out this plan and the money is all coming out of the farmers’ pockets before they get a penny out of the schemes,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

He also hit out at Teagasc – the national farm advisory body – who he said were supported with substantial State funding.

“Despite that State funding, Teagasc are at the top of the league when it comes to charging farmers for their involvement in the various schemes.

“Teagasc is being double paid at the expense of farmers who are struggling to keep bread and butter on the table,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

He added that there seemed to be a cartel like system in place as regards fees being charged to farmers with farmers facing fees of €1,000 to be ‘GLAS compliant’.

Deputy Fitzmaurice said that farmers paid an annual fee to Teagasc while they also paid them for any extra work involved with joining schemes and all this while the advisory body was getting a large State subvention.

“I will be further investigating the amount of money going into Teagasc from the Government in addition to what they are getting from farmers for the different schemes.

“The private planners need to be competitive too and need to realise that farmers do not have money ‘coming out of their ears’ – they also need to charge competitive and acceptable rates,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.

He also said that some vets were imposing ‘astronomical charges’ for a ‘stock health check’ as part of the Knowledge Transfer Scheme.

Deputy Fitzmaurice said that he had also tabled a question as regards the 1,500 to 2,000 farmers who didn’t get into GLAS 2.

“We were told that they would get priority to get into the new scheme but so far I haven’t had a straight answer from the Dept. of Agriculture or the Government,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice.