Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I have asked for this issue to be debated in the light of the failure of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to pay farmers in Kerry, and in other counties, the money they are due under REPS 4. At present only 466 of 1,960 applicants in Kerry have been fully paid. That is less than 25% of all applicants. For the other 1,494 farmers who have not yet received their payment this represents a considerable setback at a time when farm incomes are already under severe pressure. In most instances farmers in receipt of REPS are on the lower income bracket. Given that they were led to believe their payments would have been received prior to Christmas, many farmers were dependent on having their money for Christmas so that they could make some sort of Christmas for their families. However, in my county, Kerry, and in many others that has not been the case. Many farmers borrowed money to carry out farm improvements and other work, but now find themselves unable to meet repayments on time.

The situation throughout the rest of the country is that almost 55% of applicants are in the same position. That amounts to nearly 16,000 farm households who have been let down and many of them are those who can least afford a further financial setback at this time. Kerry, for some reason has the third highest percentage of applicants who have not been paid, with only Waterford and Wicklow having a worse payment record. When I raised two cases in parliamentary questions last week the reply stated this due to administrative problems in processing the claim. Surely that cannot be the case in so many individual cases and across such a large group in every county. One of the replies I received stated that payment issued to applicants whose applications required no further examination following administrative checks, but that queries arose in those checks for a significant number of applicants. I have been told by agents who work on behalf of applicants that in previous years applications with the same wording to the letter gave rise to no query. It is no wonder that many farmers are questioning the motivation behind the failure to make these payments. Some of them suspect the Government is doing it deliberately in order to save money and others are questioning whether adequate staff are available in the Department offices in Tralee to process the applications.

Perhaps the Minister of State will explain the nature of the problems that have arisen so that 1,494 Kerry farmers will be able to do what is necessary in order to receive their payments. Do the problems relate to the manner in which the forms were submitted? Is there a priority list regarding the submission of forms? If so, surely enough time has passed since the applications were received for such problems to have been identified and addressed. Is it the case that problems within the Department regarding staff shortages and so on are responsible? I know there have been staff changes in the Tralee office. Is this a contributing factor? Whatever the reason it still does not explain why the Minister has failed to honour the commitment he made last year that the payment process would have moved well beyond this by now. The specific undertaking was that payments would begin on 14 December and be completed in January. That has not happened.

The Minister therefore must honour his promise to these farmers, many of whom are experiencing real hardship, and ensure that the payments are made as a matter of urgency. Many of those farmers in Kerry have loans and mortgages from the bank, which were given on the understanding that REPS payments would be received to clear off what is outstanding. I ask the Minister to give the matter his immediate attention.

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