Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

Under the EU regulation, there is a ceiling at which a payment is allowed to be made. That ceiling will be considered for the new rural development package. The Commission does not believe in indexation. I agree the anomaly can cause some serious issues.

The other issue of concern is that once the Commission's auditors and the Comptroller and Auditor General examine the schemes, they put pressure on the Departments to ensure the clawback is paid. There are people who are old and vulnerable and through no fault of their own find themselves in these difficulties. We try to consider each case individually to see what can be done. Unfortunately, often we are so precluded by these regulations that we do not have the flexibility that we would have ourselves. It is an ongoing issue and we will continue to evaluate the recommendations of the report from the Oireachtas committee.

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