Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I thank our guests for coming in and for their opening statement. One of the actions under goal 2 is to achieve payment targets and target dates in line with the commitments in the farmers' charter. I welcome the fact that there has been movement in relation to the charter today. Obviously, there were a number of issues last year when it came to payments, including with ACRES. That was particularly disappointing because farmers, who are often accused of not doing enough, had put their hands up, joined the scheme in large numbers and done everything that was asked of them. However, the Department let the side down and could not pay them on time. The aforementioned action is a really important one. I appreciate that there was a new CAP and new systems. All of that is fine, but has the Department taken any specific measures this year to make sure that we will not see those delays again?