Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter. I congratulate Deputy Cuffe on his recent ministerial appointment and wish him well in it.

Up to 9,000 farmers have not been paid their REPS 4 payment, which they were promised last October would be paid by Christmas 2009. All sorts of technicalities concerning their applications are being thrown at them. Yet part of the problem is many of them cannot get information on what is wrong, if anything, with their applications.

The Monaghan REPS office has a shortage of staff. With the public sector work-to-rule and officials not getting mileage allowances, many of them have not turned up at the office meaning a backlog of applications has emerged.

I know several farmers and their consultants who have gone to the office to get their forms brought forward. Until they can get the forms down to the Environmental Protection Agency at the Johnstown Castle Estate, County Wexford, they cannot get paid. The farmers in question are in financial desperation. One had to sell his breeding stock to pay his ESB bill or else the supply would have been cut off.

While it may seem like a small scheme to some, to many others it is a matter of life and death. Whatever it takes, will the Minister ensure the personnel are put in place to deal with these applications and ensure its recipients are paid?

Everyone knows the banks are not easy to deal with these times. It is hard to explain to a farm family, however, that billions of euro can be found to underpin the banks and other financial institutions while the REPS 4 moneys are held up, which they believe is because the Government does not have to pay them.

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