The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, announced recently that payments for 2013 under AEOS1, AEOS 2 and REPS 4 have commenced. Minister Coveney said that “approximately €50million will issue to AEOS and REPS participants in the next week”. He added “These payments represent the initial 75% payment which my Department is allowed to release following the completion of detailed administrative checks. In accordance with EU regulations these checks must be completed on all applications before any payments can issue”
Minister Coveney said he was pleased that his Department has reached this level of payment earlier than last year with greater numbers being paid their first instalment. Payments will continue on a weekly basis until all cases are cleared. The total expenditure on the REPS and AEOS schemes in 2013 will be in the region of €200 million.
Payments under the 2013 Disadvantaged Areas and Single Payment Schemes commenced on 25 September and 16 October respectively. To date payments worth in excess of €600 million have issued in respect of nearly 119,000 Single Payment applicants with payments worth in excess of €186 million issuing to some 88,000 applicants under the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme. These figures compare favourably with the 2012 payment figures at the same time last year.
Balancing payments under the Single Payment Scheme will commence on 1 December, while payments are continuing to issue under both schemes as individual cases are confirmed eligible.
