BISS is designed to provide a direct income support to Irish farmers to underpin their continued sustainability and viability. \ Odhran Ducie
Advance payments under the 2025 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) are expected to begin this week.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has said that payments worth €510.9m will issue to 110,499 farmers from Thursday.
The advance payments are expected to commence at a rate of 70%. Payments will be visible in farmers' bank accounts in the coming days and the Department has said it will continue to process, as a matter of urgency, all remaining cases for payment as they meet scheme criteria.
The Minister said: "These payments are a critical element of family farm income and, also make a significant contribution to the wider rural economy. Combined with the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme (ANC) payments that issued in September it means that in excess of €694m of area-based payments have been paid from my Department in the past month."
Given the importance of scheme payments to farmers, the Minister has ensured farmers that these ANC payments will continue to issue in the most efficient way possible - today 93.87% of applicants have been paid.
The Minister urged any farmers with outstanding requests for documentation from the Department to return it to allow payments to issue.
Payments under the 2025 Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme (ANC), which commenced last month, are also continuing as more cases are cleared for payment and 2025 payments under the Eco-Scheme will commence from next week.
Farmers wishing to contact the department regarding their BISS or ANC payments can ring the Direct Payments Helpdesk at 057 8674422. Farmers can also submit any queries they may have online via www.myagfood.ie
By close of applications on 15 May, the Department of Agriculture had received 123,705 applications from farmers, at present 117,713 are eligible for payment under BISS and CRISS.