Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

As with any scheme, there will be an element of fraud. My point is many of the concerns or issues would have arisen because of the difficulties and the variables of the scheme. In many other schemes, calculating the entitlements is more straightforward. The variables in farm assist are often beyond the control of the individual and, on a year-on-year basis, people may not perceive that they need to notify us all the time when their circumstances change. Unfortunately, this might give rise to overpayments. The Comptroller and Auditor General carried out an audit in 2014, so both the findings from this audit and those from our fraud and error survey have informed a fairly significant change in practice in terms of the documentation we use and the review processes we have in place and how we capture information. We have worked closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to get more sensitised information so we better understand the nature of the particular type of farming and what the expectations are.