The rules governing the new EU Single Farm Payment have received a broad welcome from the industry, with concessions for farmers who had rented land, retired or had gone into forestry.
Negotiations have concluded between officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food on the payment which will replace all previous EU cheques which were worth €1.6 billion last year.
The negotiations were aimed at addressing anomalies which had arisen when Ireland opted for decoupling direct payments from production based on the payout level in the first three years of the century.
The rules will aid farmers who had land rented in those reference years, had afforested some of their lands or disposed of land to public authorities for non-agricultural use.
The president of the Irish Farmers Association, Mr John Dillon, welcomed the changes which had been made in the rules.
However, he warned that he was very unhappy with the penalties which farmers might face if they inadvertently broke the regulations.
"The current penalty system is extremely unfair as it assumes 100 per cent compliance is possible in practical farm conditions," he said.