MINISTER for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD, today (Wednesday) announced the opening of an online system for submission of applications to the National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme for 2018.

It's expected that the fund for the scheme will come to around €3.5m for this year.

Minister Creed said: “The National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme are key support measures in encouraging and facilitating generational renewal through the entrance of young, well educated persons into the farming sector.”

He added: “The 2018 National Reserve and the Young Farmers Scheme build on the very real success in supporting the regeneration of agriculture in Ireland since 2015 which has seen over 7,000 young farmers and new entrants benefit from Direct Payment measures to help underpin the agricultural sector in Ireland in the coming years.”

The EU regulations governing the operation of the National Reserve provide priority access to the categories of ‘Young Farmer’ and ‘New Entrant to Farming’.

To qualify as a Young Farmer, the applicant must meet a series of conditions:

1. They are participating in the Basic Payment Scheme in the same year they submit the application;

2. They are less tham 40 years of age during the year they submit an application under the Basic Payment Scheme

3. They are setting up an agricultural holding for the first time or have set up such a holding during the five years preceding the first submission of the Basic Payment Scheme application.

To qualify as a ‘New Entrant to Farming’, the following conditions must be met by applicants:

1. They are participating in the Basic Payment Scheme in the same year they submit the application

2. They must have commenced the present agricultural activity in the 2016 calendar year or any later year

3. They did not have any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk in the five years preceding the start of the present agricultural activity, and they must submit an application for the Basic Payment Scheme no later than two years after they have completed the cultural activity.

Successful applicants to the National Reserve receive an allocation of entitlements at the National Reserve National Average.

Should they have entitlements that are below the national average, they will receive a top-up to the national average value.

The fund for 2018 is expected to come to around €3.5 million. This year, the National Reserve will be targeted at educated young farmers and new entrants to farming.

Separate to this, the Young Farmers Scheme provides additional payment to successful applicants. Each year, some €24 million in funding is available from 2015 to 2019.

Applications under the 2018 National Reserve and Young Farmers scheme must be submitted using the online facility available at http://agfood.ie/. The full Terms and Conditions of both schemes is available on the Department’s website at www.agriculture.gov.ie