REPS Payments still a mess

ICSA rural development chairman and president elect Gabriel Gilmartin has expressed extreme frustration that REPS 4 farmers still haven't received payment. "In some cases, farmers who have not even been told whether they have been accepted into REPS 4 are now being subjected to sudden on the spot inspections. It is not right to inspect someone when they still haven't been informed whether or not they are in the scheme." "The Department needs to put structures in place that will ensure farmers are paid on time and that queries are sorted out well in advance of payment dates. It is not acceptable that many farmers don't even know yet if a query is pending on their application. As a minimum, farmers should be entitled to know if there is a query relating to their application by the 15th October so that the 75% payments can be issued in a timely fashion." "REPS 4 has been a fiasco from the start with problems from day one and poor communication from the Department. It has been a very tough year in farming and for many farmers, to not even know if they have been accepted into the scheme or not at this stage of the year is a ridiculous state of affairs," Mr Gilmartin concluded.