Over 25,000 Irish beef farmers who claimed premiums on 30 per cent more cattle than the Irish quota allowed are to receive compensation of some €17.5 million, nearly €9 million of which will come from the Irish taxpayer.
The agreement on the "overshoot" issue was announced yesterday by Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan, and was welcomed by farm organisations.
The EU-imposed ceiling on the special beef premium of 1.07 million animals was exceeded by some 30 per cent last year when Ireland opted to break the link between production and supports.
Seeing an opportunity in the system, Irish farmers claimed premiums for 740,000 bulls because bull premiums were worth €70 more than the €150 paid for bullocks.
While this netted farmers €36 million more than they would normally have received, it resulted in the quota being broken, with 25,000 of them penalised at the rate of 23 per cent of their payments.
However, following discussions with EU Agriculture Commissioner Fischer Boel an additional €7.6 million was agreed for the beef farmers involved. The Minister said she had got agreement from Minister for Finance Brian Cowan for a significant contribution which came to €8.9 million.