Rural Payments and Services

Before you apply, please read the full scheme guidance. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us before completing your application.

Young Farmers Start-Up Grant Scheme

New Entrants Start-Up Grant Scheme

If you need any help or assistance to use this guidance, you can book an appointment at your local area office.

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Updates in the last month

• 31 December

We've updated the How to apply section for both schemes with details of the 2017 funding round.

Young Farmers Start-Up Grant Scheme

At the time of submitting your application:

• you must be between the age of 16 years and under 41 years of age at the point of application
• you must be setting up as head of the holding of a new or existing farming business for the first time
• you must have a suitable formal agricultural qualification (at least to National Vocational Qualification Level 2 or equivalent) or be able to demonstrate at least five years' agricultural experience
• you must have registered your business with us

New Entrants Start-Up Grant Scheme

At the time of submitting your application:

• you must be over 16 years of age; there is no upper age limit
• you must be within a year of starting your agricultural business
• you must have a minimum of three hectares of land
• you must have registered your business with us

Funding is limited and it may not be possible to approve all eligible applications.

If this is the case, preference will be shown to those businesses that are not succession cases.

Other factors that we will also consider are:

• the membership and governance arrangements for your business
• whether any additional investment is to be made without public support
• the effect of the investment on the agricultural output and labour requirement of your business
• the sector of agriculture your business is involved in

The funding round for 2017 opened on 1st April and will close on 30th September.

You should send your completed application form, business plan and any associated supporting documents to your local area office.

It’s important to remember that that you should only start work or purchase materials after your application has been approved and you have returned a signed contract.

You must start implementing your business plan within nine months of the grant award date.

Young Farmers Start-Up Grant Scheme

Grants are worth €70,000 but will be paid in Sterling at the appropriate exchange rate applicable when your claim is received by your area office. They will be paid in two instalments over a maximum of four years. If your application is approved you will be required to sign a contract with us.

When you are ready to incur the expenditure detailed in your business plan you must submit a claim to us requesting the grant.

New Entrants Start-Up Grant Scheme

Grants are worth €15,000 but will be paid in Sterling at the appropriate exchange rate applicable when your claim is received by your area office. They will be paid in two instalments over a maximum of four years. If your application is approved you will be required to sign a contract with us.

When you are ready to incur the expenditure detailed in your business plan you must submit a claim to us requesting the grant.

Once you are ready to purchase materials and services detailed in the business plan in your approved contract, you should submit a claim requesting the first instalment of your grant.

A second instalment claim can then be submitted once the milestones laid down in your business plan have been reached.

If the progress with your business plan is on schedule, your second instalment will be paid.

Payment will be made following any inspection or administrative checks that may be required. You will receive payment in sterling by BACS into your nominated bank account within three months of the receipt of the claim.

More information on claims can be found in the Claims and Payments section of the full scheme guidance.

If your application to join either scheme is successful, you will also be subject to our inspections programme.

You can find out more about how and why we carry out inspections in our inspections section.

Inspections

If we discover that you have not followed scheme guidelines, we will call this a breach. It’s important that we penalise breaches to make sure we are following European Commission law.

Further information why we need to penalise breaches can be found below.

Disallowance and penalties

If you are unhappy with a decision we have made regarding your application, you have the right to appeal.

Likewise, if you are unhappy with our service as a whole, we have a dedicated complaints procedure to help you resolve this.

Appeals

Complaints

If you have any questions about this scheme, please get in touch.

Contact us