Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I can confirm that my primary objective in relation to processing payments under the single farm payment and disadvantaged areas scheme this year is to ensure that as many payments can be made to as many farmers as quickly as possible subject to the necessary requirements of those two schemes being met. For that reason, I set out a very ambitious payments schedule for commencement of payments under the various direct payments between September and the end of the year as follows: 22 September - 75% advance payment under the disadvantaged areas scheme; 18 October - 50% advance under the single payment scheme; 20 October - 25% balancing payment under the disadvantaged areas scheme; 1 December - 50% balancing payment under the single payment scheme; and 8 December - payment of the new grassland sheep scheme.

Despite the difficult circumstances, my Department has adhered strictly to this schedule and it is my firm intention to do so again for the payment of the single farm balancing payment commencing on 1 December and the grassland sheep scheme payment on 8 December. It was vitally important that certainty be provided regarding the timing of payments, and it was also important to individual farmers and to rural Ireland as a whole to maintain payments at the maximum permitted level over that period.

Despite the record number of altered maps received from farmers this year and the consequent need to revise the area information on the land parcel identification system in order that the requirements of the governing regulations are met, my Department has paid almost €700 million to more than 110,000 farmers under both the single payment and disadvantaged areas schemes in the month since payments commenced.

It is often forgotten that under EU rules, the earliest permissible date for payment under the single payment scheme is 1 December. This year I made a special case to the European Commission, taking account of the past two difficult years endured by the farming community, and secured agreement to make an advance payment of 50% from 18 October. This is the fifth successive year that Ireland had paid an advance of the single farm payment, an achievement which is unprecedented. There is no doubt that Ireland is one of the first member states to release single payment funding and the record of the Department in processing applications since the introduction of the single payment scheme, SPS, in 2005 and making advance payments is equal to the best record of any member state.

The total number of farmers paid under the single payment scheme in the first two weeks alone is 110,438 with an amount totalling €519 million. When account is taken of the additional amounts paid under the disadvantaged areas scheme, payments to date have reached almost €700 million, a significant figure under any circumstances. This underlines the initiatives that I have taken to achieve my objectives of maximising payments. One of the initiatives came from my decision to include the provision of advance payments under the disadvantaged areas scheme as well as the SPS. In a significant change, the Department has been able to pay those farmers whose applications are fully processed and clear on a weekly basis. I also brought forward the date for the balancing payment for the disadvantage area scheme. In addition, it has also been possible to make full or partial payments to those farmers whose only difficulty is non-digitised maps, with payment being made on those parcels of land that are digitised and cleared. This meant that thousands of farmers received payment much earlier than would normally have been the case.

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