Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

This is a very tricky scheme. It is a small scheme involving approximately 8,000 recipients.

Only approximately 6% of farmers claim farm assist. It is a tricky scheme, given that it is based on income at a point in time and unfortunately, as most people know, farming income fluctuates wildly and many of the elements that feed into income are unpredictable and variable. Many of the issues with the scheme are around cases in which, on review, people's circumstances, such as their costs or income, had changed during the period in question and they had not necessarily advised us of it, and an overpayment or underpayment had arisen.