Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

We do not set the criteria for these schemes, which are European Union-wide. In the space of a few short weeks, more than 110,000 farmers have been issued with payments totalling €700 million.

We knew from the early part of this year there would be additional requirements from Europe with regard to mapping, land parcel identification and so on. In recent years, individual farmers may have sold sites, built new farm buildings and so on, so there are differences in the eligible areas. At the beginning of this year, to set this process in motion and ensure we do not draw penalties upon ourselves, as a Department we sent out more than half a million maps to all single farm payment recipients and asked the farmers to send back amended maps if required. I stress, in case I may be misconstrued, that the overwhelming majority of farmers who had to send amended maps had more than enough eligible land, although there may have been changes such as a new roadway or a site used to build a house for a son or daughter.

More than 70,000 of the applicants returned maps - a total of more than 250,000 - to the Department. Many of the 40,000 people who submitted their single payment scheme application online sent their maps by post. More than 70,000 farmers sent in hard-copy single payment or disadvantaged area scheme applications and, in many instances, the maps were sent separately from the applications. Many maps also came in late. Thus, the collation of the maps had to be done first, followed by the inputting of the data. It was only then, after the initial processing was done, that we knew the extent of the digitisation work that was required.

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