Licensing

A NOTE on CURRENT HEMP LICENCING PROVISIONS in IRELAND and ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS for IRISH FARMERS

In 2021, Ireland’s Health Minister defined the EU Industrial Hemp crop as an illegal product for the purposes of Ireland’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 without first satisfying the requirements of Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

  • Article 36 protects the integrity of the operation of the internal market for the sectors across the Union by preventing Member States from introducing arbitrary and unauthorised barriers to trade - Article 36 therefore ensures the fair and equal economic treatment of all farmers in all Member States.

    • Article 36 simply requires that national authorities must first provide scientific evidence of an actual risk to health before they introduce national measures which treat legal EU agricultural products as dangerous goods.

In November 2020, the European Court of Justice instructed Member States that hemp and derived goods cannot be treated as dangerous products except where Article 36 TFEU had first been satisfied.

  • Observing that hemp and derived products are not dangerous according to international science, the EU Court upheld the legal right of farmers to continue to use all parts of the crop to make their products.

Although no justification consistent with the requirements of Article 36 TFEU has ever been provided by any authority in Ireland, since 2022, the application for a licence to grow Industrial Hemp included a new section which compels Irish farmers to confirm the crop is a dangerous narcotic which they will destroy at harvest before processing takes place. This unauthorised restriction prevents Irish farmers from earning their traditional livelihoods and producing value added products they were previously rewarded for creating.

HFI farmers and operators refused to confirm hemp is dangerous and asked the Minister for Health and the Minister for Agriculture to provide the science required by law to justify the measure. Although no science was ever provided, Irish farmers now face a third annual cultivation season where they are denied a licence to grow their crop from EU certified seed.

  • In 2022, a rare and exceptional decision of the Irish High Court then suspended the operation of relevant aspects of the Irish 1977 Drugs Act to protect Irish hemp industry operators from a threat of “serious and irreparable” harm. The Irish Court instructed Irish authorities that Article 36 TFEU must be satisfied before such national legislation could lawfully be applied.

As with the EU Court ruling, the judgement of the Irish High Court was also immediately ignored by the Minister for Health who continued to introduce legislation classifying hemp as a dangerous product while ignoring the requirements of Article 36 TFEU.

The Department of Agriculture has repeatedly failed to clarify EU provisions for Irish health authorities.

Nevertheless, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is responsible for the legal operation of the CAP regulated sectors in Ireland and is extensively resourced by the Irish tax payer to ensure all laws enacted by all authorities in Ireland are fully consistent with the relevant provisions of all primary and secondary EU legislation.

  • The repeated failure of Ireland’s Department of Agriculture to act to uphold EU rules in Ireland has permitted Irish health authorities to repeatedly obstruct the operation of Irish family farms and businesses by measures which disregard EU agriculture and trade law, TFEU provisions, a ruling of the EU Court of Justice and an exceptional decision of the Irish High Court.

    • Consequently, Irish hemp farmers and operators must continue to face criminal prosecution for serious drug trafficking offences related to the possession of a CAP regulated farm crop and products they were previously encouraged by Irish authorities to embrace.

The resulting devastation to Irish family farms and businesses, some of them operating the sector in Ireland for decades, is extensive.

  • Products which used to be grown on Irish farms are now grown by farmers in other EU Member States and imported into Ireland where they remain widely available in shops across the country. Irish farmers are advised to expect terms of up to life imprisonment if they try to continue to make these goods themselves.

However, Irish hemp farmers and operators are fully entitled to expect their right to participate equally in the economic life of the Union will be respected through the correct interpretation and application of EU rules by responsible authorities in Ireland.

  • For the avoidance of doubt the European Commission instructs that hemp complying with the provisions of the CAP is not a drug and is not used to produce narcotic drugs.

Since 2021 the EU hemp crop is arbitrarily classified as a schedule 1 controlled drug in Ireland. The information provided below and some of the data provided on our cultivation page relate to licencing and crop provisions as they existed before the Minister for Health changed Irish law. The current provisions contravene EU laws which ensure the equal economic treatment of Irish farmers and operators relative to their EU counterparts. The hemp sector in Ireland is one of the oldest in the European Union. The current licence prevents Irish farmers from producing high value products which were first developed on Irish farms and first introduced to the EU market by Irish hemp farmers and operators.

  • Hemp is a safe, legal, EU agricultural crop and Irish farmers who agree to produce it on the basis that it is a dangerous product - as well as those who encourage them to produce it on that basis - undermine the common interests of all hemp farmers and operators across the Union.

HFI members continue to defend the industry they created and hope for your support.

This page will give you some information and advice for filling in your Hemp Licence Application Form. If there’s anything you’re not sure about you can call or email HPRA for clarification

Introductory Notes

  • To grow hemp in Ireland you have to be either a farmer or a registered company. 

  • The farmer can also be the end processor of her own crop.

  • Licences for the cultivation of hemp are processed by the HPRA on behalf of the Department of Health. Only hemp seed varieties approved by the European Commission may be cultivated; a link to the EU list of approved seed varieties is provided below.

  • For seed orders, please contact info@hempfederationireland.org

  • We advise you to go through the information we provide before sending the initial email to HPRA. 

  • Once you have your licence application, you'll find the content below mirrors the various sections on the application form and includes links to where you'll find the information you'll need to provide

Please note the following changes to application procedures from 2020:

  • There is no application deadline. You can now apply for a licence to grow hemp in Ireland at any time during the year.

  • An Irish hemp licence is now valid for a full year.

HPRA recommends you apply for your licence 4 to 6 weeks before you intend to start growing your crop.

First Steps

Completing Your Application Form

If something doesn’t apply to you just write N/A.

Section 1

Section 3

  • You have to provide an OS map that clearly shows the sites where hemp will be planted - the scale of the map should be 1:2,500

  • Find GPS / ITM at the link below: https://irish.gridreferencefinder.com/

  • If you don’t own the land you get the Herd Number from the owner.

  • Total acreage of hemp: Acreage Calculator is at: https://www.inchcalculator.com/acreage-calculator/

  • Security Arrangements -e.g. describe how the field/plot is accessed / state whether there is any road frontage/ include a description of any boundary fencing, locked farm gates, stock proof fencing, barbed wire fencing etc also name any boundary hedges, trees or other vegetation and state if they are mature, etc.

Section 4

Section 5

  • If you or anyone involved with you in the hemp growing business has been convicted of a drugs offence you must provide this information.

Section 6

  • Describe what the hemp you grow is going to be used for (CBD/Fibre/Seed/Oil/ etc) and details of how it is to be processed.

  • The section on destruction is looking for information about what you will do with any crop material that’s left over after the processing. For example it might be ploughed back in as soil additive or made into compost or used for fodder etc.

  • If you’re not processing the hemp yourself, you must send a copy of the end-user contract with your application.

Section 7

  • Double check this section before you send your application.

  • If you don’t yet have a photocopy of the seed label to send with your application you have to send it to the HPRA within two weeks of your licence being granted. Failure to send it on time could result in you being denied a licence in the future.

  • If you don’t yet have the documentation from the seed supplier to send with your application you must also send this to HPRA within 2 weeks of your licence being granted.

Section 8

  • Sign and send it. (Keep a copy for your records)

Finally:

  • Based on the most common mistakes made on forms they received last year, HPRA have sent us the following advice for applicants:

  • You must provide an Eircode for your own address (an Eircode for the cultivation site should only be provided if relevant).

  • If there is a section of the form that doesn’t apply to you, you should write ‘n/a’ in the box.

  • You should double check that the email address provided in the application form is correct.

  • You must supply an Ordnance Survey map of the proposed crop location.

  • The map coordinates provided for the proposed crop location should be ITM co-ordinates.

  • Make sure you include the variety of seed to be sown and the name of the seed certifier (this information is included on the licence and your application cannot progress without this detail).

  • If you own the land proposed for hemp cultivation, you should state this on the application form.

  • In relation to security arrangements, you should detail how the proposed crop location is accessed and if it is visible from a public right of way.

  • Applicants should include a description of what happens to the waste crop under the section on ‘destruction’.

  • An applicant is not authorised to cultivate hemp until they receive a hard copy of the hemp licence in the post.