Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Why does the Department resort to paying it all out at one time? Given that the income situation varies throughout the year, why not use the facility that exists to make three or four separate payments? The Department has everyone's account, ibans and the devil knows what with computers. As such, why not pay the money out two or three times a year? It would be far more valuable to farmers to get the money in that way.

The Minister has that facility and is not precluded from doing it. It is just the Department itself that is doing that.