Mary Wallace (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy and if he had given the Department of Agriculture and Food the names of those involved we would have made inquiries about them. However, his question is of a general nature and does relate specifically to those cases.

One of the main objectives of the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, since assuming office as Minister for Agriculture and Food, has been to ensure the efficient implementation of the decoupled single payment scheme, the most significant change to agricultural support since our accession to the European Community. It has been a great success. This huge task was successfully implemented when over €1 billion in single payments issued to 118,500 farmers in December 2005. Since then payments have been made to 127,800 farmers who hold entitlements and applied for the single payment scheme in 2005. A few hundred 2005 cases, largely involving inheritance, remain to be paid at this stage and payments continue to be cleared on a regular basis once the documentation is received by the Department. I think the cases referred to by the Deputy may be under the 2006 scheme.

This is an annual payment scheme with payment due in December 2006. However, the Minister sought and secured approval from the European Commission to make an advance payment of the single payment scheme in 2006. The processing of an advance payment was quite complex and my understanding is that only one other Member State paid the advance.

On 16 October 2006, thanks to the excellent work of the Minister and the Department, 114,000 farmers received advance payments under the 2006 scheme amounting to €526 million. Since then an additional €37 million in advance payments has been made to a further 4,800 farmers and these advance payments continue to be made as applications are fully processed. I hope the Deputy understands that if he is referring to a 2006 application advance payments of money due in December 2006 are in question. Some 93.5% of applicants holding entitlements have received an advance payment, up to six weeks ahead of the normal payment commencement date. Balancing payments under the 2006 scheme will commence on 1 December 2006. In anyone's book this has been a huge success story.

In common with the coupled schemes, which the single payment scheme replaced, delays in processing can be caused by many factors, including incomplete application forms, errors on applications and discrepancies highlighted following computer validation, which must be resolved via correspondence with the applicant. There may also be cases, as mentioned by the Deputy, where forms appeared to have been posted but did not arrive at the Department. In many cases, payment could not be made because applicants did not submit an application to transfer the single payment entitlements, with lands, by way of inheritance, gift, lease or purchase. Many of these applications were only received after our Department made direct contact with the farmers in question during recent weeks, and some have yet to be submitted. This may reflect the situation mentioned by the Deputy.

In other cases, over claims on commonage lands need to be resolved before any of the claimants concerned can be paid. Similarly, cases where given parcels are subject to dual claims must also be resolved before any of the parties concerned can be paid. In 2006 the incorporation of sugar into the single payment scheme added to the complexity of clearing cases for payment.

The objective of the Department is to make payments to all of those farmers who have yet to receive their payment or are entitled to a supplementary payment as soon as their cases are cleared for payment. Every effort is being made by my Department to resolve the outstanding cases, but many of them are extremely complex. In other cases, my Department is still awaiting documentation and applications for the transfer of entitlements before payment can be made. A number of payment runs continue to be made each week as the more complicated files are cleared.

The successful introduction of the single payment scheme in 2005 and its smooth operation in 2006 is testimony to the efforts of all concerned. It is the Department's intention that this success will be built on. Payments will continue to issue to farmers as their applications are processed to completion in accordance with the EU legislation governing the single payment scheme.

If the Deputy wishes to furnish details of the individuals involved, the Department will make inquiries. I assume the applications in question have only been with the Department for a number of weeks.

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