The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has advised farmers of two important opportunities regarding corrections to their 2025 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based scheme applications.

The department is currently carrying out preliminary checks to identify any over-claims, overlaps or dual claims made in BISS applications.

Notifications will be issued where the department error on the farmer’s 2025 BISS application.

In 2025, the department estimated that around 4,600 herds will receive a preliminary check notification.

In the event that a farmer or their advisor receives a preliminary check notification, they should log on to Agfood.ie and respond before the deadline of June 23, 2025.

The department has also informed farmed that notifications relating to the Area Monitoring System (AMS) are due to begin from June 24, for "a minority of farmers".

Under the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the AMS is mandatory across all EU member states to monitor compliance with farm scheme criteria.

The system uses Copernicus Sentinel satellite data which is gathered automatically every five days and stored to provide up-to-date information as required.

The first round of AMS notifications is for the potential presence of artificial surfaces, for example: buildings, farmyard extensions and farm roadways, in land parcel(s).

Farmers or their advisor will have 14 days from the notification date to respond to the AMS notification.

DAFM said that further rounds of AMS notifications will issue from July 2025 onwards.

"These preliminary checks and AMS notifications allow the farmer the opportunity to rectify issues with their BISS and other area-based scheme applications, without penalty.

"Farmers and advisors should check the correspondence section of their agfood.ie online account.

"Where a farmer is signed up for text message alerts, a text will issue to advise them that they have a notification on their agfood.ie account," a DAFM spokesperson said.

DAFM added that should farmers wish to contact the department they can do so at:

057 867 4422 in relation to queries on their BISS and other area-based schemes application, preliminary checks notifications, AMS notifications;
049 436 8288 in relation to queries on registering for www.agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register;
[email protected] in relation to queries on AMS notifications