Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The team is still working on that. It has been challenging and indeed disappointing. We made the decision last year to accept all 46,000 who applied because we did not want anyone to not be in the scheme last year. We also wanted to get all of those paid for their work last year by December. Unfortunately, that was not possible. We are working towards trying to get those payments for the co-operation process paid in February as much as possible and the team is still working on that. There are challenges with the IT and all of the complexities around it but it is something I am working hard on with the Department to ensure every effort is made to have that expedited as quickly as possible. I know how much-awaited those payments are for farmers.