Minister Heydon confirms 122,151 payment applications submitted by deadline
- Published on: 19 May 2026
- Last updated on: 19 May 2026
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, has confirmed that 122,151 farmers applied online for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes before the 15 May deadline.
Minister Heydon commented:
"Area-based support schemes are of critical importance to farmers. One of the key milestones is the 15 May deadline and I’m delighted that so many farmers have submitted their forms on time.”
The area-based application includes a range of schemes including the Eco Scheme, Complementary Redistribution Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF), Protein Aid, Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) and the annual claims for Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).
The Minister added:
“This figure reflects the massive effort made by farmers, FAS Advisors and by my department in assisting farmers with these schemes and their various requirements. I want to particularly acknowledge the advisory services again this year, who have worked extremely hard with their client farmers to meet a range of application deadlines in recent months.”
The Minister concluded:
“To support farmers, my department held 16 one-to-one clinics around the country. Almost 1,437 farmers were assisted at these events with a further 317 receiving direct help at the public office in Portlaoise. The Direct Payments Helpdesk of my department made and received over 6,875 calls to farmers since 1 April to help them with their applications and queries. I want every eligible farmer to maximise their payments because I and everyone in my department knows how crucial they are to farm families.”
ENDS
Note for Editors
Late applications
Applications will be accepted after the 15 May closing date. However, there will be a 1% per working day penalty, as per the Terms and Conditions.
BISS and other area based Schemes Amendments
Where farmers have made their BISS and other area based schemes application, but now wish to make an amendment, they may make such changes online at www.agfood.ie until midnight on Sunday 31 May, without any penalty.
Transfer of Entitlements
There were 34,359 applications received to transfer payment entitlements.
As per the Terms and Conditions, the closing date for the receipt of Transfer of Entitlements applications was 15 May 2025. However, if a change made to a BISS online application leads to a farmer having insufficient land to use all of their entitlements, they will have the opportunity to submit a Transfer of Entitlements application up until midnight on 31 May 2025. This is only available to farmers who can show that they have made a change to their BISS application by 31 May 2025 and that change has directly led to the need to transfer entitlements.
Scheme breakdown
|
Scheme |
Eligible applications* |
|
Total* |
122,151 |
|
BISS* |
c. 119,300 |
|
CRISS* |
c. 119,300 |
|
ECO |
118,653 |
|
ANC |
115,094 |
- Note figures in table includes 2,902 Temporary Reference Number applications, applications where no BISS entitlements are held (if applicable), and applications without any claimed area. applications will be subject to administrative checks to determine eligibility.
- *Note these figures are subject to change as processing of entitlement trades are completed in the coming months.
- A county-by-county breakdown of these figures can be found below
Closing Date BISS Applications
|
County |
Total |
|
Carlow |
1,554 |
|
Cavan |
4,641 |
|
Clare |
5,807 |
|
Cork |
11,975 |
|
Donegal |
8,662 |
|
Dublin |
573 |
|
Galway |
11,422 |
|
Kerry |
7,407 |
|
Kildare |
2,005 |
|
Kilkenny |
3,083 |
|
Laois |
2,700 |
|
Leitrim |
3,355 |
|
Limerick |
4,788 |
|
Longford |
2,305 |
|
Louth |
1,422 |
|
Mayo |
10,823 |
|
Meath |
3,629 |
|
Monaghan |
3,980 |
|
Offaly |
2,732 |
|
Roscommon |
5,405 |
|
Sligo |
3,761 |
|
Tipperary |
6,324 |
|
Waterford |
2,208 |
|
Westmeath |
2,881 |
|
Wexford |
3,741 |
|
Wicklow |
2,066 |
|
|
|
|
TRN'S |
2,902 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL |
122,151 |