Press release
Minister Creed Announces Commencement of €20m Payments for Year 3 of the Knowledge Transfer Programme
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, today announced that payments in respect of Year 3 of the Knowledge Transfer Programme have commenced.
The minister commented: “I can confirm that the payments in relation to Year 3 of the Knowledge Transfer Programme have now commenced. I am pleased to note that these payments are commencing a month earlier than in previous years.”
The minister added “over the three year lifetime of this programme it has played a central role in helping farmers develop the skills and knowledge which will help them to address sustainability, productivity and competitiveness challenges. This programme has also been shown to have significant social benefits for the farming community in addition to providing important financial support.”
Given the structure of the programme, payments are now rolling out on a sector by sector basis over the coming weeks. Payments for farmers in Equine and Poultry Knowledge Transfer Groups have now issued. Payments for Dairy, Beef, Sheep and Tillage will issue shortly.
In each case, there is an EU regulatory requirement that the payment for farmers in Knowledge Transfer Groups must be passed to farmers via the facilitator of their Knowledge Transfer Group. Thus, individual farmer payments will issue to the facilitator who will then pass this payment to the farmer. Where a farmer has met all the requirements of Year 3 of the scheme, the payment is €750. In cases where a farmer is in two Knowledge Transfer Groups, he/she will receive a total payment of €1,125.
The minister concluded “I have always been very supportive of the aims of the Knowledge Transfer Programme. The model used ensured that farmers were able to avail of expert advice from a trained facilitator, while also benefitting from the opportunity to share their experience and learn from each other in the group setting. This interaction between farmers has proven to be very popular and successful, and I am confident that excellent work that went into this programme will be of very real benefit to farmers”
ENDS