ICMSA demand less paperwork for farmers

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) have proposed 20 changes aimed at simplifying paperwork and admin for farmers.

It comes as ICMSA president Denis Drennan described the administrative workload as becoming increasingly “unusable, unwieldy and counter-productive,” and called on the Department of Agriculture to implement their suggestions.

The proposals call for a more modern approach to communication between the department and farmers, streamlined application processes and less frequently renewed documentation.

“If the Government is unable or - much more likely - unwilling to make these absolutely straightforward and logical changes,” claimed Mr Drennan, “we need them to explain why.” 

“They’ll try and fob us off by citing ‘this’ legislation or ‘that’ directives as the reason why these genuine simplification measures can’t happen,” he said.

While the demands vary, one recurring theme is a frustration at the speed in which correspondence happens between farmers and the department on a number of fronts.

Recommendation number 3 asks that farmers be given the opportunity to ‘go paperless’, if they want to, and suggests in recommendation number 6 that the department should start communicating via email to avoid the inconvenience of printing and posting.

The ICMSA apply this logic to payment statements as well, advising that they be confirmed via a text message or email that states what scheme it relates to and to do away with postage of annual statements.

The demands also highlight how things like TB documentation and livestock scheme applications currently require yearly renewals, suggesting a ‘tick box’ system in roll-over cases where information hasn’t changed. 

“We have to stop this piling up useless documentation within Government departments that’s there at an enormous cost to everyone else,” said Mr. Drennan. 

“Simplification must be one of the most abused words in the agriculture dictionary. Whoever else has seen it or believes it to be a reality, it certainly isn’t the farmers.

“Their experience is the opposite; things becoming increasingly cumbersome and long-winded. These proposals are practical, reasonable and ICMSA does not believe they will compromise regulation,” he said.

In the theme of regulation, another request was that it should no longer be a requirement for the ‘blue sheet’ - a term used to summarise the identification and tracing system for cattle - to be retained for livestock removed to knackeries.

They suggested that this current system could be replaced by moving records to hand-held devices, like those used by vets to test for TB.

Rules and documentation around issues such as TB and herd health were recurring issues brought up in the list of demands.

Request number 2 suggested the removal of the requirement for the Dairy Herd Cert where animals are tested for TB once a year, while request number 4 asks that the FCI form for animals going to meat plants should also be removed.

The statement also asked that there should be no written forms required for TB reactors, claiming that the fact they are being collected by a designated department collector renders it pointless. 

Referring to the financial strain TB cases can have on farmers, the ICMSA said that those restricted by TB or BVD cases in their livestock should receive the relevant compensation automatically, without having to submit supporting documentation.

While the majority of the issues addressed problems with the volume of documentation farmers had to process, point number 13 complained that the tone of correspondence from the Department was "legalistic".

The ICMSA alleged that farmers sometimes receive what they describe as “vaguely threatening letters”, saying a phone call in its place would resolve any issues.

The suggestions weren’t entirely critical: point number 18 called for the re-introduction of the Calf Registration App, which the ICMSA described as an excellent initiative by the Department. 

Mr Drennan concluded his statement by calling on the Minister and Department to announce a timeline to introduce these demands, or alternatively explain, “in blunt understandable form – why they prefer the present crazily over-complex system to any real reform”.