Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Ar dtús báire, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Teachta Deenihan as ucht an ábhar tábhachtach seo a ardú. Also, I acknowledge his hard work during his time as Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

As stated by Deputy Deenihan, REPS has been one of the most successful schemes operated by my Department since its launch in 1994. It has brought more than €2 billion in payments to Irish farmers. Farmers in REPS received more than €313 million in payments last year. The number of people involved in the scheme, including those applicants for REPS 4 currently being processed, stands at more than 60,000.

As the Deputy stated, REPS has always been about much more than money. It has delivered benefits to the environment, water quality, biodiversity and the landscape. Since the nitrates derogation allowed us to open up the scheme to the highly stocked dairy sector, farmers who would not previously have considered REPS are now showing interest. Indeed, many have actually made their applications. REPS is a complex scheme. Currently, a participant in REPS must include all of his or her land in the scheme and must commit to 11 basic measures and at least two biodiversity options. If Natura land is involved, there may be other obligations. This set of undertakings, negotiated with the European Commission, is the basis for payment.

In recent years, the European Commission and the Court of Auditors have taken an increasingly critical approach in their scrutiny of farm payment schemes not alone in Ireland but in other member states. Agri-environment measures such as REPS are being closely audited following a negative report by the Court of Auditors in 2006 which found that huge amounts of EU money was being spent on schemes the outcomes of which were difficult or even impossible to measure.

We had two audit visits on REPS last year; one by the Court of Auditors and one by the European Commission. Both raised serious questions about our procedures for examining applications for REPS. It was evident that we had to make fundamental changes in the way we dealt with applications. It became necessary, therefore, for my Department to scrutinise every REPS application and plan in the greatest detail. We had to introduce an entirely new system last year for processing REPS 4 applications. I am well aware that this has meant that farmers have had to wait much longer than expected for their first REPS 4 payments. I know that up to half of those who applied in 2008 are still waiting for payments. I do not suggest for one moment that this is a satisfactory situation; it is one we hope not to find ourselves in again.

There are a number of reasons for the delay. First, we had to develop a computer system for screening plans that had been prepared on eREPS, the electronic planning system approved and funded by the Department. There are no safe short cuts in developing computer systems and it took several months to get this one to an acceptable level. Second, the non-eREPS plans had to be screened manually at a time when the staff who had to do this work were also heavily involved in the farm waste management scheme. Also, all the plans had to be cross-checked against the LPIS system and further checked to confirm that they included the necessary biodiversity options. These last two checks were also computerised. At that point, which we reached at the end of January, we were finally able to start making payments on plans about which none of the checks had raised any queries. Of the more than 12,000 plans, however, fewer than 1,400 plans came through the initial set of screening checks without being queried. The rest of the files had to be checked manually. Almost 5,000 of the files have since been processed. The queries have been fully resolved in most cases, although small reductions have been applied to a number of payments because of a deficiency in the plan.

The staff of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food are making every effort to get the remaining cases processed as quickly as possible. In the case of a plan that is ineligible, it is important for the relevant farmer to ensure that a valid application is with the Department by 15 May next. While the staff of the Department are doing everything they can to identify cases to which problems pertain, they cannot do everything. Applications in respect of 2009 are already arriving in big numbers. Last year, over 7,000 applications came in between 1 April and 15 May. It is too much to expect the staff of the Department to be able to identify every application with a problem in time for a planner to fix it before 15 May. I emphasise that no aspect of any plan can be put right after that date — that possibility simply does not exist under the regulations with which we have to live. That is why every planner needs to be satisfied that every plan he or she prepares is fully in keeping with the terms and conditions of REPS and the cross-compliance obligations.

I acknowledge that farmers have patiently waited for their REPS payments this year, at a time when cash flow is critical for many people. I ask for their continued patience while the remaining applications are processed. I ask them to keep their faith in REPS, which must continue to evolve if it is to meet changing priorities and reflect changing circumstances. I am confident that the agricultural environment will be an important aspect of EU rural development policy for many years to come.

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