A farm organisation has raised fears that farmers may have to pay two penalties for the same breach of conditionality under a new 'social conditionality' rule in the 2025 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon announced the opening of the application process for the 2025 BISS earlier today (Tuesday, February 11).

Under this year's BISS, a new social conditionality element will be included.

Under that condition, an additional conditionality penalty may be applied to farmers that are found to be in breach of certain legislation relating to workplace safety, employment standards, or the safe operation of machinery in the workplace.

According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, this standard will not involve any additional checks by the department, but will be facilitated by cross-reporting from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

However, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (IMCSA) has claimed that the new condition "effectively means" that farmers could end up paying twice for the same breach, which the organisation said is "demonstrably unfair".

Denis Drennan, the ICMSA president, said: "It is a founding principle of any workable system that you can not be charged and punished twice under different headings for a single breach of a rule and yet this is plainly set out in the department's announcement."

Drennan claimed that, in the event of a farmer being found at fault by the WRC or the HSA - and having been fined by them - the department would then apply a further penalty to the offending farmer's BISS "automatically under cross-reporting".

The department has said that a system of appeals will be available for farmers who may find themselves impacted by this condition.

Drennan commented: "We continuously hear politicians telling us that they are going to simplify the system and eliminate duplication. If that's the case, why have we ended up with this kind of duplication in an already overly complex system."

He added: "The WRC and the HSA have specific important responsibilities under the legislation, and they have a job to do. Why is the department, which is barely able to administer its own affairs and schemes, moving into these obviously separate areas.

"We have absolutely no idea why that verdict is then transferred over to the department who effectively find against the farmer a second time for the same breach and deduct monies from his or her BISS," the ICMSA president said.

Drennan also claimed that the new condition also raises "profound questions" around farmers' personal data, saying that "a vast array of organisations have personal data of farmers and questions were now arising as to who exactly has access to this data".