Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

During the course of 2008, REPS 4 was not the only REPS programme analysed and funded by the Department. The Department paid out €330 million in 2008 under the REPS 3 programme. Those applications were processed and paid out. The European Commission has made it known to us in no uncertain terms that it wants all applications checked and all errors rectified before payments can be issued.

A new measure introduced by the Department will make it compulsory for REPS planners to submit all plans using eREPS, which is the Department's electronic planning system. This system will include built-in automatic checks which will ensure that information provided by planners avoids the main errors discovered in the recent administrative checks. This will considerably reduce the time taken up by the process of administrative checks. If the planner submits an application that contains an error, the Department's technology will reject that application and this will eliminate errors. The Department put considerable resources into putting in place this particular technological system.

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