Mr. Hugh Farrell:

I will follow on from what previous speakers have said. Simplicity and complications have been referred to. Generally, issues arise when there are new schemes. It happened with suckler carbon efficiency programme and various schemes. Farmers almost did not want to apply because the liability would fall back on them. The terms and conditions have brought on many of these issues and people do not realise it until they are into it. In some cases they must trust the planner to do it. We found in 2023 in particular that the IT system was overloaded and the planners could not follow up on whether an application had been accepted. There was limbo until farmers went to look for a payment or something else and realised they were not in. This is still causing an issue because people are not able to follow up on payments or actions. In other years the planners were on top of this and were able to do it not only with regard to the applications but also on follow up. We see this as a big issue. It has been an issue for the entire year. We need to look at the IT system. Planners looking after a farmer's business should have access to it the whole way through. There are other issues whereby the planners cannot access information and it is blocking them from doing their job. There needs to be more openness. Planners are nominated and paid by the farmers as their representatives.