Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

There has been no finality in our discussions on the protocol with the farm organisations but I hope they will conclude next week. As often happens, leaks from the committee appeared in newspapers. Although the substance of these leaks was incorrect, I could not do much about them once the newspapers had gone to print. I will make the paper publicly available once it has been agreed.

Farmers will be notified but it will apply for 48 hours rather than the 14-day period which farmers had sought. The clerical errors to which I referred relate to the difficulties caused by the previous experience of the need to complete so many forms dealing with such issues as retention periods and so on. This caused significant anguish for many farmers and we are all acutely aware of this from our constituency work. The introduction of a single application form will greatly alleviate difficulties in this regard.

I commend the farming organisations, farmers themselves, my Department and Teagasc on their tremendous efforts in support of the single farm payment scheme. Few mistakes were made and many people worked hard to get the system right and ensure applications were submitted on time. People have the opportunity to amend their applications up to the end of this month and anyone with concerns can contact the Department. I commend those involved on the forthrightness and exuberance they displayed in ensuring these forms were available and received on time by the Department.

There has been much comment to the effect that these inspections will be different from what happened heretofore. They will be different to the extent that inspection was previously based on the number of stock but will now be based on one's land. Identification has not been a major issue. The cattle movement monitoring system, CMMS, has worked well and people generally keep good records. I am introducing further technology to ensure people have access to their farm profiles, an issue previously raised by Deputy Naughten. This means farmers will be able to identify easily any mistakes that have been made in regard to their herds.

All this will facilitate farmers in ensuring they get the payment to which they are entitled. I am not here to prevent people from getting their due but rather to ensure they do. There will sometimes be a personality clash at the gate. This is why I introduced training and is the reason the system will be kept under review. The first lot of inspections are taking place and that experience will be examined. The bottom line is that I must ensure people are paid in the first week of September and on the first day of December.

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