Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Whelan has raised an issue that is coming across my desk a lot more frequently. I assume it is the same for every other elected Member here. I refer to advisers, consultants and so on not getting paperwork in on time or paperwork submitted to such people by farmers not getting where it should for some reason. I fully accept what he is saying. There are legal cases going on between farmers and their advisers. Whether it is a private or public matter, at the end of the day, it is the farmer who is not getting paid. I do not know how the appeals body is going to cater for that. It is an error before the application ever gets on the table. It is happening more and more. I fully accept that it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. We are going to have 50,000 farmers in ACRES but the number of people out there to do the work is limited. It is going to put more and more pressure on the system. I fully accept that is a very serious issue. In the pig farmers' scheme, there was an awful lot of money involved for individual pig farmers. I had three cases of farmers whose applications, through no fault of their own, were not accurate or correct. There was a lot of money involved.

It is an issue. I do not know how we can get this legislation to cover it because it is about appeals and appeals are based on inspections that happen. In the cases Dr. Whelan is talking about, the applications to the individual schemes never actually arrive on the table. I do not know how we can marry the two. I am not at all saying that it is not a problem and an issue because it most definitely is but we are producing legislation to set up the appeals body. I do not know how we can cover the point Dr. Whelan is making in that legislation.